


Twisted Fate

by Diary



Series: Oak [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aunt-Nephew Relationship, Awkward Conversations, Bechdel Test Pass, Canon Character of Color, Canon Disabled Character, Canon Gay Character, Disturbing Themes, Family, Friendship/Love, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Introspection, Morally Ambiguous Character, Oblivious, POV Multiple, Self-Reflection, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 23:30:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6398635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Repost. AU. A look at if Peter Pettigrew had ended up with Neville instead of the Weasleys. Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Harry Potter.

Neville's first reaction was to shriek.

The little -thing- quivered.

Slowly, he picked up a stick and poked the -thing-.

It let out a pained squeak, and Neville dropped the stick. “Gran! Gran!”

Augusta Longbottom rushed out with her wand drawn.

Reaching out to tug her dress, Neville said, “Gran. Gran, the- it's hurt. Please help it.”

Pulling him near her, Augusta knelt down. “Oh,” she said. “It's just a garden rat. Rather old by the looks of it.”

“But Gran,” he insisted, “it's hurt. Can I have it? I'll take good care of it. Can you make it better?”

Augusta's first instinct was to say no and drag him back inside. She could come back out and quickly put the creature out of its misery. It shouldn't be hard to vanish the body, she reasoned. Knowing Neville, it wouldn't take him long to forget all about it.

However, she saw the pleading eyes, felt how he kept trying to reach out, and she remembered how much Frank doted on Batman, the family dog.

Neville didn't have any friends. The Weasley twins were kind enough to him, but Ron got bored when Neville talks about the garden, Percy was too busy with his studies to play with the younger children, and Ginny was more interested in the adults than him. Augusta had tried putting him around other children besides the Weasleys, but so far, he hadn't connected with any of them, either.

“We'll take him to the animal doctor,” she found herself saying. “If they say it's okay, you can have him.”

0

Years later, Neville Longbottom bursts into Harry Potter's compartment and sees his rat sitting on Harry’s lap. “Oak!”

“This yours, mate?”

Head bobbing, Neville takes the rat. “I'm sorry. He usually never wanders off. Er, I reckon he's just excited about us going to Hogwarts. For a long time, my gran didn't think I'd get in!”

“Hey, Neville,” Ron greets. “Told Harry the rat had a home. Does Oak still fancy Fudge Flies?”

Again, Neville bobs his head. “Gran's surprised he hasn't died of heart failure, yet. But even though he's really fat, he's healthier than most garden rats.”

Ron nods and hands Neville a package of Fudge Flies and box of pumpkin juice.

“Thanks, Ron!”

Neville leaves, and Ron tells Harry, “And that was Neville Longbottom; honestly, we all thought he'd turn out to be a squib. Nice enough bloke, but he's obsessed with flowers and always forgetting and losing things. Lucky he has Oak, even though, Oak's pretty pathetic, always sleeping and nicking food of people's plates. He loves Neville. Once bit one of the twins for making fun of him.”

“Er, what’s a squib,” Harry asks.

0

After Neville is led away by Madam Hooch, Hermione Granger scoops up Oak before Draco Malfoy can. “Here. Harry, leave it alone. Neville doesn't _need_ the remembrall.”

Harry looks at the fat rat shivering in her hands.

Neville has, so far, managed to get lost for eight classes, lose his homework, trip over various things, and now, get a broken wrist from a rogue broom. Harry's not one to judge, but Neville can barely do magic. He's a prime target for Malfoy, and if someone doesn't do something, now, Harry has a feeling Oak will soon be targeted. It's not as if the rat can do anything to protect itself, and more incidents like this are bound to happen where Oak and Neville end up separated.

“No,” he quietly declares. “Give it here, Malfoy.”   

“No,” Malfoy says, “I think I'll leave it somewhere for him to find it. How about the roof?”

“Harry, no-”

“Keep the rat safe,” Harry orders while grabbing his own broom.

0

On the ground, Neville pours seeds into his hands and holds them out to Oak. “These are apple seeds.”

Oak sniffs them.

Eventually, he picks one out and begins to eat. Halfway through, he loses interest and manages to hoist himself into one of Neville’s pockets.

“You'll like 'em better when they're big and juicy,” Neville promises. “'Course, that might take a few years. But we have about six, and I'm sure we can come back after the seventh year.”

“Talking to yourself, Longbottom? How pathetic.”

Neville quickly puts the seeds in his other pocket.

“Forgot how to speak?”

“I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy!”

Malfoy rolls his eyes. “Potter, Weasley, and Granger tell you to say that? Look at yourself, Longbottom. You're a stupid, fat loser who still needs grandmummy to hold his hand and whose only friends are worthless flowers and an even more worthless, fat, thin-haired rat. You can't do magic little children have mastered. You can't fly. You can't make a proper potion.”

Taking a breath, Neville says, “I-I don't care. The professors, they t-trust me. No one but S-Snape trusts you.”

Malfoy raises an eyebrow. “Really? That's your comeback? The professors respect me. I'd say that beats trust. No one listens to you. Potter and the others, they give you sweets, pat your head, and go on, proud of themselves for being so nice.”

“So,” Neville demands.

“So,” Draco echoes.

“Yeah, so,” Neville repeats. “My Great-Uncle Algie, he reckons You-Know-Who isn't gone. I-I'll probably be one of the first to die. So, I'm just going to play in my garden and talk to my rat and smile when people give me sweets. O-only your mum gives you sweets. You steal them from others! But people want me to take theirs.”

“That isn't something to be proud of.”

“I like that people trust me,” Neville responds. “They don't have to like me. Some-someday, people are going to need to know something important, and I'll know the answer, and they'll believe me. As long as I always tell the truth, someday, people will listen to me. They won't to you.”

“Sounds like Sirius Black to me.”

“No,” Neville says. “I'll never be like him. I'd die before I hurt people like that.”

Malfoy starts to be respond, but he's interrupted by the arrival of Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan.

“Oi, Malfoy, are you picking on Neville, again?”

Dean holds Seamus back. “Don't you have anything better to do with your time than bother people? And where are those two boys who always follow you around?”

This seems to puzzle Malfoy, and he looks around. Realising they're not here, he gives a long-suffering sigh, mutters to himself, and wanders off.

“Even Neville couldn't lose two miniature trolls,” Seamus comments.

“Hey!”

“Oh,” Seamus says. He looks down. “Sorry, sort of forgot you where there.”

“Didn't you set your book on fire this morning?”

“I don't appreciate the continuing insinuations, Longbottom! Look, it's not my fault me dad's Christian, and he wanted Mam to wait until I was twenty. Hard enough to convince him to let me come here. Meanwhile, me cousins all can do more magic than the seventh years. It's the Ireland way, you know, giving tots a wand when they switch from dresses to robes.”

Dean snickers.

Neville and Seamus share a look.

It's normal for babies to wear dresses until they're around two or three, maybe four. Muggle-borns, however, always get shocked when they come across or hear about baby boys in dresses.

Cuffing Dean on the head, Seamus says to Neville, “Come on, walk back with us to the castle.”

He starts to protest but quickly realises Malfoy and the goons might come back.

Sighing, he stands and follows.

Later, at dinner, Harry offers him a chocolate frog.

“No, thanks,” he says. “I don't feel like having sweets, now.”

Across the hall, he feels Malfoy watching.

0

Neville is never, ever sticking his nose into Harry Potter's business, again.

Seamus asks, “What if he gets squished?”

“Er, well, I've never squished him,” Neville answers. “At least, I don't think so.”

“You oughta get a proper cage.”

“A cage,” Neville repeats in horrified offence. “Oak is a good rat, and he can ride just fine in pockets or handbags, as long as Gran remembers to take the mousetrap out of hers. And how'd you like to sleep in a cold, hard cage?”

“Alright, look,” Dean says, “I can sleep in Shay's bed, and Oak can sleep on mine.”

“But he needs to sleep with somebody,” Neville insists. “It's the body warmth. He gets cold so easily, and regular blankets don't do it.”

“No!” Both boys say.

Malfoy's right, he reflects. He's never going to have any friends.

The Weasley twins appears. “Hello, boys.”

“What are you three arguing about?”

“Can hear you from the common room, we can.”

“Wait,” Neville says. “Ron's in the hospital wing, and he's slept with Oak before. I can ask him!”

The twins share a look and reach out to stop him.

“Not taking Oak with you, then?”

“Are you mad? The Forbidden Forest is no place for him. He gets very nervous, you know, and it's only for one night. He just needs to sleep with someone. He's a good rat, he won't nibble on Ron or anything. Er, he might crawl into the pyjamas, onto the chest, but it's actually very warm and comfortable when he does that. I think the sound of the heart helps him have good dreams.”

Suddenly, he finds himself being dragged by the twins.

“Alright, I won't ask Ron! Let me go!”

Finally, they do, and Neville realises they're in one of the other boys' dorms.

“Hey, Wood,” one of the twins says.

Oliver Wood sits up on his bed and puts down his book. “If you lot have gotten yourself thrown off-”

“We're insulted,” one of the twins says.

“Incredibly.”

“What is it, then?”

One of them gestures to Neville. “Has detention in the Forbidden Forest, he does.”

“So proud of him.”

“But he needs someone to sleep with his pet rat. It might sleep on your chest, but we've been assured it doesn't nibble.”

“Does occasionally bite, though.”

“You said that, at the rate I'm going, I'd end up in a cell next to Sirius Black,” Neville protests. “I didn't mean to eat the last sweet, and it wasn't nice of you to scare me like that!”

“Okay,” Oliver Wood says. He looks at them as if they're all insane. “The rat can sleep with me for the night. But this had better not become a habit.”

0

Neville sits and desperately hoping he's wrong.

Earlier, Hermione and the others had been huddled together, and he was pretty sure he heard one of them say 'tonight'.

Maybe, Hermione's in the girls' dorm reading or rechecking her homework or sleeping, and Ron and Harry are staying upstairs asleep or quietly talking to one another with no plans to sneak out tonight.

Tensing, he hears something.

Oak crawls over to the chair rest and squeaks.

“Oak,” Harry exclaims in irritation.

“Oak,” Ron hisses. “Go! Shh. You shouldn't be here.”

“Neither should you,” Neville says. He stands up.

“Now, Neville-”

He sees Harry's trying to think of how to- Malfoy's right, Neville sees. People don't respect him. They won't let Malfoy hurt him, but they don't have a problem with trying to get him to do what they want.

“You're going to get Gryfifindor into trouble, again,” he says. Trying to ignore the fear, he puts his hands up and says, “I won't let you. I-I'll fight you.”

Suddenly, Hermione's wand is out, and he's flat on his back and unable to move.

Oak jumps down, works his way into the pyjamas, and curls up on Neville's chest.

Thanks, Neville thinks. I'm only dying here. But above all, get your sleep. Not like you don't do that nearly all day and night!

“What about Oak,” Ron asks. “He-he once came and got my mum when Neville managed to accidentally get himself dragged off by garden gnomes.”

If Neville could protest, he would.

Ron makes it sound a lot more pathetic than it- He'd just fallen asleep in the garden, and they'd decided to carry him back to their nest. It's not like they got more than a few inches before Mrs Weasley had come out due to realising Oak's tugging on her shoelaces meant something. She'd floated him out of their reach and chased them off.

If it weren't for Bill Weasley taking pictures, he never would have believed the story.

As it was, Mrs Weasley had just floated him to Ron's room.

“We can't take him with us,” Harry says.

Neville desperately hopes they listen. Wherever they're going, he imagines it's no place for Oak.

Hermione sighs. “He's sound asleep,” she points out. “He and Neville will be fine.”

The three go past him.

0

After You-Know-Who is defeated again, Neville hear, “I suppose your uncle's right, then.”

He looks up. “It's not something to be happy about.”

Malfoy shrugs. “Sides have to be chosen.”

That seems like a very grown-up thing to say, Neville reflects.

“I'll be on the side that stops You-Know-Who.”

“'Course you will,” Malfoy replies. “Still Potter's little pet. But you will die, you know. You weren't wrong about that.”

“So?”

“Pathetic,” Malfoy announces.

He turns and walks away.

Neville opens his bag. Everyone had given him sweets, even Professor McGonagall. She'd given him a chocolate frog, Seamus had given him a lollipop, Dean had given him a licorice wand, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione had given him a large part of the stuff left for Harry. Even the Weasley twins and Hermione's dormmates had given him some.

Digging the fudge flies out, he tells Oak, “Here. We can keep these.”

0

In the kitchen, an elf asks, “What sweets would sir like?”

Shaking his head, Neville kneels down and opens his bag. “I-I was wondering i-if you could help me.”

0

Everyone talks about the candy hidden all over the castle and wonders who might behind it.

“I found an extra-large box of Bertie's under my pillow,” Malfoy smugly announces.

Oak looks at Neville.

Reaching over to pet him, Neville shrugs and quietly explains, “Well, I felt sorry for him. No one but his mum ever gives him sweets. He may be a git, but still.”


	2. Chapter 2

At Gringotts, Lucius Malfoy coldly greets, "Mrs Longbottom.”

Gran tightens her grip on Neville’s hand. “Lucius Malfoy.”

They pass one another, and Neville turns.

“Come along,” his gran says with a tug. “Rotten dirty bastard,” she mutters. “Likely hiding some dark objects in his vault now that Arthur’s cracking down.”

“Can Mr Weasley check vaults, Gran?”

Sighing, she answers, “No. Normally, I’d say that was a good thing, a person has a right to privacy, but in his case-” She trails off.

“Snape likes him and his son.”

“Professor Snape, Neville,” she scolds. “But that doesn’t surprise me.”

They approach the line of people coming from Teller Bornuk’s station. There are empty stations and ones not as full, but Gran always gets in Teller Bornuk’s line.

When it’s their turn, they see Teller Bornuk is busy writing. Smiling, Gran brings her finger to her lips, and Neville nods.

“You’re doing this on purpose on, aren’t you,” Gran says.

“No, of course not, Mad-”

His tone changes when he looks up to see them. “Oh,” he says with a frown, “it’s you, again. You came in here last week.”

“School’s starting soon,” Gran answers. She lifts Neville’s hand up.

Teller Bornuk gives him a kind smile. “Hello, little one. Only you aren’t so little, anymore.” Looking at Gran, he says, “That’s no thanks to you, of course.”

“Hello, sir,” Neville says.

“Well, come along,” Teller Bornuk says.

He disappears from view, soon reappears, and takes Neville’s hand. “I’ll just hold onto the boy in case you get any ideas.”

Neville tries not to laugh. He doesn’t know what Gran did- she insists she didn’t do anything- but at one point in time, Gran did something. Now, whether Teller Bornuk did something first or not, Neville doesn’t know, but he wouldn’t exactly put it past him.

When Neville was younger, their insults and frowns towards one another upset and frightened him, but now, it’s just sort of funny and confusing.

“I noticed you cast a vote of abstainment regarding the possible amendment to the Bill of Goblin Rights,” Gran disapprovingly begins. “If there had been one more ‘aye’, it would have been a tie, at least. But no, once again, goblins still aren’t able to own wands.”

Teller Bornuk’s father had been on one of the councils at the ministry with Lucius Malfoy and Mr Weasley. A few years ago, when he’d died, Tell Bornuk had inherited his seat. Whenever the council has votes, Gran always checks the newspaper the next day to see what vote Teller Bornuk cast.

“Creatures ought to stick to their own magic,” Teller Bornuk answers.

“That’s not for you to decide.”

“No, it’s not,” he agrees. “That’s why I abstained.”

They get into a trolley.

“And with that, you helped take the choice away.”

“No, I didn’t. I simply let others-”

“There’s no difference,” Gran snaps. Her arm automatically goes across Neville’s chest when the trolley takes a sharp dip.

“This planet knows what creatures and who of those creatures it wants. The reason this earth is cursed is because people have the ability and choose to use that ability go against nature.”

“That sounds dangerously close to death eater talk of blood superiority and muggle inferiority.”

“The dark servants interfere just as much, if not more, than anyone. I don’t side with them.”

Neville wonders if Teller Bornuk actually feels the need to say this. Gran wouldn’t be sitting in this trolley and wouldn’t let him, either, if she thought Teller Bornuk might be a supporter of You-Know-Who or any other dark wizard.

“No one knows who you side with in your heart,” Gran comments.

“At the moment, I side with the boy. No child should be subjected to your presence on an almost daily basis.”

Neville hopes she doesn’t try to throw Teller Bornuk off the trolley.

The trolley stops, and they get off.

“Because of your vote, I’m still considered more superior than you.”

Opening the vault, Teller Bornuk replies, “No matter what my vote, you’d always consider yourself more superior than me.”

Glaring, Gran opens her handbag and digs Oak out. “Here, Neville, take him.” While Neville puts a sleeping Oak in his pocket, his gran says, “Well, obviously, I am, but my being a witch doesn’t automatically make me superior to other goblins.”

She begins filling the handbag with money.

Teller Bornuk turns to Neville. “A second year, this year?”

“Yes, sir,” Neville answers. “I just turned twelve.”

“Hmm,” Teller Bornuk says. “Growing into a fine man, just like your father. No doubt the milklady who gave birth to him would be proud of you.”

“Gran,” Neville warns when she withdraws her wand.

“This doesn’t concern you-”

“Gran, I-I’m not taking any sides in the arguments, but if you hurt Teller Bornuk, we’ll be stuck here.”

“Sensible boy,” Teller Bornuk says with a wink. “What’s your favourite subject?”

“Herbology, sir,” Neville answers.

They leave the vault.

“A noble art. Those pursue it after school often bring great joy to others. Occasionally, they even manage to save lives against the odds. Regardless of my views, many consider that an admirable feat. And have you made many friends, yet?”

“No, sir,” Neville answers.

“Some people don’t make them easily.” They get back in the trolley. “Usually, when they finally do, the friends tend to stick for life.”

“Thanks,” Neville says.

Looking at Gran, Teller Bornuk notes, “You’re being rather quiet.”

“Gran wants to send me to Durmstrang,” Neville says with a shudder.

“Oh?”

“You-Know-Who managed to invade Hogwarts,” his gran says. “They’d accept him based on his pureblood status. But Algie and Minerva both insist that everything will be fine. Quirrell never showed any interest in him. If something happens like this, again, however."

"Gran, that's where Mr Malfoy wanted to send his son. They're into the dark arts there."

Neville's pretty sure he'd be dead within the first week. Pureblood or not, he's still close to being a squib, and he doesn't know whatever language they speak.

"They test the blood there. Unless you know for sure the milklady was pureblood, I don't believe it would be wise to risk it."

Thankfully, the trolley takes another sharp dip, and Gran's arm shoots out across Neville's chest instead of her going for her wand or reaching over to strangle Teller Bornuk.

Once they're back in the lobby, Teller Bornuk leads them to the door. "Now that the boy has what he needs, perhaps, you can stop coming weekly."

"And perhaps, you can realise your philosophical outlook has very real-life consequences."

To Neville's surprise, Teller Bornuk seems somewhat sad. He pats Neville's hand before letting go. "Believe it or not, I'm very aware of that. Good luck at school." He bows to Neville, and then, gives what seems like a sarcastic bow to Gran.

Neville isn't sure how a bow can be sarcastic, but this one sure seemed like it.

Shaking her head, Gran takes Neville's hand and watches Teller Bornuk walk away. "The fool," she mutters.

0

"You have your money?"

"Yes, Gran." Neville digs it out of his pocket.

Nodding, she says, "I expect you to do better than last year. There's no reason you can't get Os if you try."

"Yes, ma'am.”

He remembers all the nights he stayed up in the common room and recopied his notes, over and over, and forced himself to read pages in his books aloud, and the sinking feeling he got when his assignments came back with an Average.

In Potions and Astronomy, he'd try his best to concentrate, but he'd somehow always manage to mix an ingredient or star up.

On his shoulder, Oak nuzzles his neck.

Neville is grateful. Oak knows how hard he tries. A few times, Oak even came and deliberately spilled Neville's ink, though, thankfully never on the paper, and refused to get off the paper until Neville took whatever sweet Oak was carrying around.

Even though he realised Oak had to have stolen it from someone, Neville was still touched by the gesture.

"On the train you get, then."

He does, finds empty compartment, and puts his trunk in front of the doors. He doesn't know if they lock without magic, and he's no good at locking charms.

"I guess I better start studying," he says.

Oak, however, has no sympathy to spare due having fallen asleep on the windowshill.

Sitting down, Neville opens one of the Lockhart books and begins reading aloud.

0

Neville jumps when the compartment door is opened.

One of the Weasley twins peers at him. "Were you trying to block the door? You do know you it slides to the side, don't you?"

Of course, Neville knows.

He just didn't really stop to realise the implications of it.

Thankfully, before he has to try to answer, the twin turns and calls, "Hey, Gred, bring her here."

A second later, the other twin and what must be their little sister appear. Neville hasn't seen her in years. She's a small, freckled girl who looks rather nervous.

From what he does remember about her, she was always just as fearless, if not more, than her brothers.

"Ginny," one of the twins says to her, "this is Neville Longbottom."

"Neville," the other says to him, "do us a solid and look after Ginny for us. We have to find our ickle baby brother."

"Before Miss Bookworm murders us."

"Or chops off our ears," one of them says. "Be okay, Gin?"

She nods but doesn’t look sure.

"Good," one of them says. "Don't worry. We'll find them."

"And kill Ron. We'll only hex Harry."

They close the door.

Neville hopes, for Ron and Harry's sakes, they haven't done something mental. He reckons they'll be okay right up until the point where Hermione has them at wandpoint. Unlike the twins, she'd have no objections to killing both Ron and Harry, or at least, making them wish she would decide to kill them instead of whatever punishment she subjects them to.

"Er, hullo," Neville says.

"Hello," she says.

Then, she sees Oak. "Oh, I remember him."

Picking up the now awake Oak, he asks, "Would you like to hold him?"

Nodding, she carefully takes him. "He's missing a toe.”

"Yeah. My gran's surprised he's not missing an ear or a whole leg," he tells her. "Oak had a hard life before we found him. But he must have been strong," he proudly declares.

She giggles. "He's fallen asleep!"

"He does that.” Neville takes him back and puts him in his pocket. 

"I'm going to write in my diary," Ginny says, and it seems there's a hint of a question in her voice.

"Alright," Neville agrees. "I'm going to work on taking notes," he says.

They sit quietly with Ginny occasionally giggling.

He supposes it's normal. He's witnessed Hermione lecturing books, and Seamus has a tendency to yell at the wireless when the announcer says something he doesn't like or chuck things at it; a few times, Dean's even had to hold him back from full-on attacking it.

When the trolley lady comes, Neville is grateful he still has his money.

"No, thank you," Ginny says. She holds up a small sandwich.

"Here," Neville says. He figures his job of looking after Ginny means making sure she has sweets. "Ron gave me stuff last year. I'll share with you."

They buy sweets and pumpkin juice, and the trolley lady smiles at him and gives him an extra box of fudge flies for Oak.

"Thank you," Ginny says.

"It's not a problem," Neville says.

He breaks a liquorice wand into pieces for Oak. 

0

After the feast, Ron announces, "I got a broom. Don't know if I'll ever use here, but at least, I can stop having to use Bill's rickety old one when we play at home. Ginny got a cauldron."

Neville hopes she's okay, now. He remembers how shaky she'd looked when she finally saw her brother and Harry come into the common room.

"What'd you get, Harry?"

"My mum made him socks," Ron chimes in. "That he asked for," he adds in disbelief.

"I like the clothes your mum makes," Harry says.

"What present did you get, Neville?"

"Oh, my great-uncle's a saleswizard, and he went to Russia to deliver something, only they were so grateful, they paid for him to stay the week. He took loads of pictures, and he gave a photo albums of all the nurseries he visited."

"He visited people with babies?"

Dean looks at Seamus as if trying to decide if he's taking the mickey or not.

"Er, no," Neville answers. He digs the album out. "It's what- it's basically another name for a greenhouse or florist shop. He took pictures of all the different plants for me." 

They all look at the plants for a few minutes.

"Shay got a TV in his room," Dean says. "And Tamila, one of my older sisters, she gave me all her old nail polish for my experiments. I'm going to see if there's a potion that can turn it into actual paint. My parents gave me a new, bigger case for my supplies." 

0

Hermione sits down next to him in the common room.

"Hullo, Hermione.”

For a long moment, she doesn't say anything. He wonders if Ron said something, again, and she's trying to find a quiet place to gather herself.

Just as he's about to go back to recopying his essay for Transfiguration in black ink because he accidentally wrote it in red, she asks, "Neville, what do you think of the term 'mudblood'?"

"Hermione," he exclaims. "You can't say that word! Of everyone-"

"Neville, until this morning, I'd never heard that word."

"Oh.” His anger disappears, and he remembers Hermione's muggle-born. "Hermione, did someone call you that," he urgently asks.

"Malfoy did," she answers. "Ron tried to hex him."

"Good."

"Neville!"

"I-I'm sorry, Hermione. But that is good. I'm glad he did."

Setting his quill down, he says, "Calling someone that, it means you're saying they're evil, that they can't help but be. Some people believe that muggle-borns get their power by making a deal with demons, and the demons steal the magic from Squibs. It's ridiculous, but- some people are just stupid or mean, I guess."

Hermione sighs. "Thank you, Neville."

"I didn't really do anything," he points out. “Ron's the one who hexed the git.”

"Honestly," she says, "I thought Ron might have just wanted to hex Malfoy. Hagrid said it was bad, but I didn't know if everyone considered it-" She pauses.

"We'd all like to hex Malfoy," Neville responds. "But it's a terrible thing to call someone, and no pureblood or half-blood worth anything would use it."

Nodding, she gets up and leaves.

0 

In her office, Professor McGonagall looks bone-tired. "I just spent an hour talking to your grandmother," she informs him. "Do you want to go home?"

Malfoy keeps insisting muggle-borns will be killed, and Neville's almost squib. Some part of him does, but-

"I was wondering if there was something I could do to help Mister Filch, Professor," he says. "I know that if something happened to Oak-" He trails off.

In truth, he's not sure what he's hoping she'll say. His sympathy only goes so far. Filch is a terrifying person, and while Neville does want to help, he'd prefer it if helping didn't involve him being anywhere near the caretaker.

There's a long silence as she looks at him with an odd expression on her face, and just as he's debating if he should apologise and leave as quickly as possible, she stands, comes over, kneels in front of him, and places a hand on his shoulder.

"Neville," she says, "I know Augusta and I sometimes get frustrated with you, and I imagine there will be times you get dreadfully annoyed with us when you're older. But I want you to know that we're very proud of you. If you want to help Mister Filch, keep working with Professor Sprout on the mandrakes."

"Yes, ma'am," he says with warm pride overtaking the confusion.

"Now, go back to lunch," she says. Standing and returning back to her desk, she gives him a smile, and while it doesn't quite met her eyes, she doesn't look quite as tired as before.

He wishes he knew how he managed to help her.  

0

"I know something you don't know."

Neville looks up from his seat in the library.

Sitting down, Malfoy smirks and pushes something across the table.

He looks down and feels his breath catch.

His parents. The Order of the Phoenix.

"That's Peter Pettigrew," Malfoy says. He points to one of the members. "He's the one who Sirius Black killed."

"I know the story," Neville says.

"Funny how that rat of yours has the same eye colour as him," Malfoy says. "Potter and Black, they saved him from bullies. He became their little pet. And look how he ended up."

"He died a hero.”

"I'm sure that Order of Merlin is a great comfort to his mother," Malfoy retorts.

It would be to his gran, but he's not sure it's a good idea to say so. "Why wouldn't it be? You're proud of the one some relative of yours got."

"Pollux Black," Malfoy says. "He didn't have to die to get it."

"That makes the one that Mrs Pettigrew got even more important," Neville points out.

"My point," Malfoy says with an edge of irritation creeping into his voice, "is that being Potter's pet will get you the same fate."

"If I die a hero-"

"Pettigrew wasn't a hero!"

Startled, Neville tries to discretely scoot back.

He tries to remember if he has his wand and is relieved to remember he'd left Oak with Colin Creevey on the condition the first year not take Oak anywhere after he got through taking pictures.

Taking a breath, Malfoy says, "He was a pathetic loser who got scraps. And then, he tried to play with the big boys."

"He was a hero," Neville repeats. "Everyone knows I'm almost a Squib and can't get above As and might die at any minute. You're only saying what I know everyone's thinking."

Rolling his eyes, Malfoy grabs the picture and stands up. "You can pretend to be brave all you want, Longbottom. But when death comes, you'll cry, wet yourself, and beg."

He stalks away.

Neville starts packing up his bag.

Malfoy makes it sound like I’m trying to act like I’m not afraid of death, he thinks.

He doesn't think about his own death often. He doesn't like the thought, at all, but he imagines he'll either be asleep or simply not paying attention when it does come.

What he is terrified of is death happening to other people such as his grandmother, Harry and his other housemates, and Oak. He still holds his grandmother's hand in public and sometimes gets up during the night to watch her sleep until he's sure he can see her chest rising and following. During the weekends, if her owl doesn't arrive on time, he gets increasingly twitchy, and even Harry's offers of sweets are unable to distract him. He carries Oak almost everywhere and tries to make arrangements for someone else to take care of Oak when he can’t.

Does Malfoy worry about anyone like that, he wonders. Does he understand the fear of that happening? To his mum or his dad? The two boys who follow him around? His family owl?

0

"No!"

Seamus’s voice echos, and Neville cups Oak protectively in his hands.

"Don't be a coward, Seamus," Dean snaps. "If you don't want to be my friend, then, look me in the eye and say so!"

Thankfully, Ron and Harry appear.

"Oi! What's going on,” Ron demands. “We can hear you in the common room. You made Hermione spill her ink on her History of Magic report, and because she's mental, she forgot she was a witch who could just vanish the ink and almost started crying."

"Dean has to stay with you or Neville," Seamus says. "I'm only half, and whatever it is, it managed to get Nearly Headless Nick. He's a bloody ghost!"

"No offence, Seamus," Ron says, "but we don't want to wait while Dean sketches things. We don't make bets on exploding snap games. And who's going to help you through the portrait hole if Dean isn't with you? Don't you remember what happened last time?"

Last year, Seamus had tripped going through the portrait hole and landed face-first in a burning fireplace. It'd taken him a week and a half in the hospital wing to fully recover.

"But-"

"What do you expect us to do? I have a barely-working wand, and if Harry wants to pass his classes, he'll save Hermione before he'll save Dean. And Neville-"

Harry nudges Ron and gives him a look.

"Lost my wand this morning," Neville says. "Not that it'd matter. I still can't levitate a feather properly. At least, with you, you have a chance of burning the monster or making it explode." 

"I'm not going to let this thing, whatever it is, use fear to control me," Dean says, and it sounds as if he's saying something he's heard said before. "Shay, you're my best mate, and that's not going to change."

Sighing, Seamus sits down. "I don't want you turned to stone."

"Hey," Dean says. Sitting down next to him, he offers, "We're both half, anyway, yeah?"

"Yeah," Seamus says with a weak grin.  

Relieved, Neville sets Oak down.

0

"Oak!"

Earlier, Oak had scurried off.

"O-"

Neville pauses.

There's a tiny little girl wearing bizarre glasses and kneeling down and holding Oak in place with one hand while using her wand to point at him with the other. She has pale skin, long, white hair, and reminds him of Malfoy.

"Hey, that's my rat! Leave him alone."

She lets go, and Oak scurries over to Neville.

"He's very odd," the girl declares. He sees she's a first year Ravenclaw. "I wasn't going to hurt him. It was just a revealing spell. I thought perhaps he had broinistiz. My name's Luna Lovegood."

"There's nothing odd about Oak," Neville snaps. "And it's not nice to do spells on people's pets without permission."

She reminds him of Snape and Malfoy, he realises. Snape takes joy in threatening Oak. Most of the time, Neville leaves him in the Gryffindor tower when he has to go to Potions, but sometimes, he forgets Oak's in his pocket. Snape, though, he always somehow knows.

"I'm sorry," she says but doesn’t sound sorry at all. Removing her multi-coloured glasses shows she has silver eyes similar to Malfoy’s.

"Just leave Oak alone," he orders.

Once they're back in the Gryffindor tower, he strokes Oak. "I don't know if that girl was just loony or if she really meant to do something bad, but try to stay away from her, okay?"

Oak curls closer to him. 

0

Ron looks down in horror and instinctively reaches out to touch Hermione’s hand.

However, he quickly jerks back and withdraws his wand.

"Mister Weasley-"

"There's something moving in her pocket, Professor," he says.

McGonagall and Harry both draw theirs, and she orders, "Move back, back behind me, now.”

"No," Dumbledore says. Walking over, he reaches inside and withdraws a shivering rat. "This creature is what Mister Longbottom always carries around, is it not? He was never in any danger."

"Oak!"

"How did- Oh," Harry says. "Right. Neville accidentally took him to Potions, and he slipped him to Hermione when he realised, and then, forgot to get him back when they left."

Ron reaches over to take Oak. "Oh, thank Merlin you're okay, at least." Petting him, he asks, "Professors, is there anyway we can use him to find out what happened to Hermione and the Clearwater prefect? A way that won't hurt him?"

For a minute, Harry hesitates. "If- I think Neville would understand. He's Hermione's friend, too. Oak's brilliant, but when it comes down to it-"

"No, he's pathetic," Ron absently corrects. “Oh, uh, that is-” 

"No," Dumbledore answers. "Unless this rat were to have a human brain, there's no way he can be of help. You two may see Miss Granger in the morning; now, I think it would be wise to return the creature to Mister Longbottom."

0

The twins look close to crying.

He stays where he's sitting. Harry and Ron have disappeared, and he's desperately hoping they can do something. Find Ginny, stop whoever or whatever took her and hurt the others.

Thankfully untroubled by the horrible thing, Oak sits on his lap and munches on a Bertie bean.

If Ginny Weasley is-

Taking a deep breath, he tells himself he can't cry, especially around Percy, Fred, and George. This has to be worse for them and Ron than anyone else.

0

Neville is starting to lose hope in ever going more than a few weeks without people fighting around him.

"Gran-"

"Not now, Neville!"

"Well," Professor McGonagall comments while waving her wand and causing a blue shield to form around her, "this is a fine example for you to set for your grandson."

"My pureblood grandson? Like that pureblood little girl who was kidnapped!"

Uncle Algie sighs and puts his hand on Neville's shoulder. "Come on, lad. Let's get you and Oak some ice-cream."

"I'm not going back to Hogwarts next year, am I," Neville asks.

Helping him put his coat on, Uncle Algie answers, "We'll talk about it after Augusta is through trying to kill Minerva.” Opening the door, he announces, “Augusta, I'm taking Neville for some ice-cream. Minerva, lovely as ever to see you."

"You as well, Algie."

Taking his hand, Algie leads him out. "So, you managed to get an O on Herbology."

"Yes, sir," Neville answers. "Only I got As on everything else."

"As long as you don't bring home any Ts, I won't complain. Would you like to go back to Hogwarts next year?"

Neville thinks about it.

"Yeah," he finally answers. "There's Malfoy, Snape, You-Know-Who, and really scary, big snakes, but most of the people are nice."  


	3. Chapter 3

Gently shaking his gran, Neville says, "Gran, we're here."

Snapping awake, she sighs.

Ever since Sirius Black escaped, she's been dead worried.

He also gets the feeling she's not happy with the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Professor McGonagall hadn't seemed to want to tell her when she came over to the house for dinner, and when she finally had, Gran had gotten quiet. After dinner was over, she had taken McGonagall into her bedroom, shut the door, and one of them had cast a silencing charm so all he could hear when he tried to listen in was a buzzing noise.

When they'd finally came out, both had looked angry.

Remus John Lupin is the bloke's name, and Gran had pointed him out in a picture of the Order of the Phoenix. In it, he was a tall, thin man with sandy-brown hair and scars on his face. When he'd asked about them, Gran had hesitated but finally answered, "All that matters is you're kept safe, and despite my intense reservations, Minerva has convinced me to let you go back. Just, be on your best behaviour around him, and I don't care what Harry Potter or any of your housemates do, stay in bed during the night."

Neville doesn't like all this fear and silence.

Even Oak seems to know something bad is going on; he's lost weight, and he's much more twitchy than usual. Gran says he's just caught a summer cold and they'll buy some rat tonic, but Neville knows it's more. Oak usually doesn't pay much attention to the world around him, but when he does, it's obvious he's a smart rat.

Standing up, she makes room for him to get out of the seat.

Hopefully, seeing Teller Bornuk will cheer her up.

They leave the Knight Bus and go into Gringotts.

Teller Bornuk frowns when he sees them. "Is it a good idea, bringing the boy out into public?"

"It's necessary to ensure I don't manage to find myself locked into a vault," Gran snaps.

"I'm offended by your insinuations against my creativity," Teller Bornuk responds. He disappears from his booth, returns, and take's Neville's hand. "Probably best, however. I want to hold onto this young man whenever I find myself alone in a room with you."

"If you would stop doing fool things such as casting votes of abstainment whenever the right for non-wizards to own a wand comes up, you wouldn't have to put your faith in a thirteen-year-old wizard."

"Gran," Neville protests.

"It wasn't an insult towards you," Teller Bornuk informs him. They get into a trolley. "I always stuck very close to your father whenever they came in."

"Thankfully, Neville doesn't encourage you."

"He's inherited your daughter's sensibility."

"If you call sticking some to the wall-"

Neville's interest piques. "Gran? Who did Mum stick to a wall?"

Teller Bornuk laughs.

"Before Alice had truly gotten to know me, she went with us to the family vault one day. I very justifiably drew my wand on Bornuk, and she reacted."

"Mum stuck you to a wall," Neville says in disbelief.

"After your father and I were done laughing, she attempted to do the same to me," Bornuk says.

For a moment, Neville takes this in. Then, he finds himself laughing. "Gran, that's brilliant! "

Smiling, she reaches over and pats his hand. "Yes, it was, dear."

They get to the vault, and Gran fills her handbag. "Neville, it's time you visit your parent's vault."

"Okay," Neville says. He’s unsure how to feel, and he notices Teller Bornuk looks- sad or maybe hurt.

They get back into the trolley.

When they get to the vault, she digs a key out of her purse and hands it to Teller Bornuk. He unlocks the door, and Neville sees a bright mist covering the doorway. Taking a deep breath, Gran says, "Neville, I want you to walk through the mist alone. It might feel funny, but you'll be alright. Don't touch anything until I come in."

"Gran-”

"If I'm on anyone's side, at the moment, it'll be yours," Teller Bornuk says in a resigned tone. "Listen to your grandmother, little one. We'll be there in a minute."

Slowly, he steps through and feels a brief prick of cold followed by a burst of warmth. Turning, he looks out to see Gran and Teller Bornuk through the mist with Gran's hand placed on his shoulder.

They come through the mist.

"Good," she says. "Neville, pick something up."

"What, Gran?"

"It doesn't matter, just pick something up," she snaps.

Spotting an old Herbology text book, Neville picks it up and opens it.

_Alice Nadine Wood- Will give ten galleons to whoever manages to destroy this book. Fifty to anyone who manages to hex Lilly Potter_

"Ah," Gran says. "Lily Potter, then Evans, charmed this book after your mother tried to unsuccessfully lose it several times. I didn't know it'd managed to get in here."

Neville feels a heavy, painful sadness.

He's always known his mum hated Herbology, but this really drives the point home. His dad managed to get Os, but from what Neville knows, he never cared much about the subject.

Setting the book down, Neville digs Oak out of his pocket.

Oak gives an irritable twitch.

"Look, Oak," Neville says. "This is Mum and Dad's vault."

Oak looks around.

"Come here, Neville, look at the muggle toys your father bought when Arabella Figg got in the family way," Gran says. She mutters, "Damn those bastards."

"Was Ms Figg a muggle," Neville asks. He sets Oak down.

"A squib," Gran answers. "I'll show you her picture when we get home. She married a muggle, though. Never met the man, but when the death eaters came, he didn't hesitate in trying to protect his wife and preborn baby. Your father got there in time to save her, but it was too late for her husband and baby.”

Suddenly, a loud shriek fills the air, and Neville spins around to see Oak floating in the air with his body twisting unnaturally while he squeakes in distress.

Gran grabs Neville and keeps a firm grip on him while Teller Bornuk does something.

Oak falls to the ground, and Neville breaks free.

He carefully picks Oak up, and shaking violently, Oak curls closer to him.

"The harm isn't permanent," Teller Bornuk says. "Ah, this is what caused it.”

Neville looks. On the table near the book is the necklace his dad gave his mum on their first wedding anniversary. "Oak," Neville scolds, "that isn't candy! It's a necklace. We've talked about this- You aren't supposed to eat things unless me or someone who knows me gives it to you."

Not that Oak listens, he reflects. He often nicks things off people's plates and has occasionally shown up with sweets in his mouth he must have stolen.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Gran asks.

Nodding, Teller Bornuk answers, "The charm is very precise. If an animal manages to wonder in, it can likely touch things without the charm activating, but if it were to try to destroy something, the charm would-"

"Oak's just hungry," Neville protests.

"The charm doesn't care for intention," is the gentle response. "The mist, it recognises your soul and your grandmother's. Only you and she can touch and remove the objects in here without harm."

Seeing Oak has calmed down, Neville gently puts him in his pocket.

Gran sighs. "We'd better go." Picking up the Herbology book, she hands it to Neville. "Here; I imagine you'll have better luck keeping track of this than Alice did."

"Thank you," Neville says.

He wishes it could just stay in the vault but doesn’t know how to say so.

They go back to the lobby in silence.

"Be careful," Teller Bornuk tells Gran. "You sometimes make bad choices."

"Whereas certain ones you've made could fill a book," is her sharp reply.

"Mine have never greatly affected anyone but me."

"Think again," Gran replies. "Take care of yourself, as well." Taking Neville's hand, she says, "Come along."

"Bye," Neville says.

Teller Bornuk nods and gives him a bow.

0

"We need a-"

Gran's words are interrupted by something attacking him.

He's knocked on the floor, and something paws at him.

Suddenly, a red light fills the shop. "Five seconds until I cast the Animal-Be-Gone spell," his gran clearly and angrily declares.

The -thing- freezes.

"Off my grandson. Now!"

The weight disappears, and his gran pockets her wand and comes over to help him up. "Must have smelt Oak," she says with an unpleasant look at the saleswitch hurriedly shoving the thing he now sees is a cat in another room. "Why wasn't it kept in a cage?"

"It was, ma'am," the lady answers. "He's very intelligent. Half-kneazle. Usually, he just ignores the customers when he lets himself out."

Digging a healing potion out of her purse, Gran gives a look saying she is not happy with the answer.

Awkwardly, Neville digs Oak out with his free hand. Though shaken, he’s okay and nudges Neville's fingers.

"Sorry, Oak," he says. "It's always us, isn't it?"

"Rat tonic," Gran says with a glare at the saleswitch.

After Gran's given a small, red bottle, they leave.

"Gran," he asks, "will Sirius Black go after anyone? Or will he just try to leave England?"

Sighing, she answers, "I don't know. No one knows what goes on in the minds of the mad."

Suddenly, her hand tightens, and he looks up.

"Mrs Longbottom," Narcissa Malfoy says.

Draco Malfoy’s hand in hers.

Neville is going to remember this, and the next time Malfoy calls him pathetic for still holding Gran's hand, hopefully, he'll be brave enough to remind Malfoy of this moment.

"Narcissa Malfoy," Gran replies.

He gets the feeling she's about to say more, but Malfoy chimes in with, "Mother and I were just talking about Sirius Black. Best be careful; you never know what post office or hospital he'll attack next."

Gran starts to take a step forward, and Mrs Malfoy doing the same, but confused, he asks, "Why would Black care about post offices or hospitals?"

"You're on the wrong side," Gran says to Mrs Malfoy. "And one day, your boy'll pay for it. As one mother to another, I'd never wish that on anyone. Come along, Neville." She tugs him away.

"Good day, Mrs Longbottom," Mrs Malfoy says with her cold voice seeming to carry.

0

"Hiya, Neville!"

It takes Neville a moment, but he remembers the bouncy boy in front of him is second year Colin Creevey. "Er, hullo, Colin."

"This is my baby brother, Dennis," Colin says. He pushes forward a little boy who looks incredibly shy. "We think he might be magic, too!"

"It's okay if I'm not, though," Dennis quietly says.

"Hello," Gran says. "Where are your parents, dear?"

"They're talking to Mr Weasley," Colin answers.

"Dada's explaining about milk delivery, and Mummy's explaining how she and Aunt Nessie can foods," Dennis expounds. "Colin, will you send me more of the candy Mr Weasley gave me? Please?"

"You burnt a hole in your tongue, Dennis," Colin patiently responds. "Dada and Mummy can't fix that like Mrs Weasley did."

"But it was only a small hole!"

"I'll see if they have some at Hogwarts," Colin says. "Neville, look.” He thrusts something in Neville's face. "The Daily Prophet had a photo contest, and I won! Mum and Dad are dead proud, and I made sure they put in that I'm a Gryffindor!"

Neville looks down at the clip-out and remembers how furious Gran had been when she first saw it. Neville hadn't known anything about Colin entering a contest, though, and she'd ended up leaving him with Uncle Algie while she went to yell at Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore.

There's numerous pictures of Harry all by himself, and while he won't say anything about it, he can't help but think maybe it was this fact rather than having the most talent responsible for Colin being chosen.

There's a picture of Ron and Harry playing chess in the Gryffindor common room, one in the library of Ron reaching up to get a book and handing it to Hermione, and one outside of Harry and Hermione sitting together. In the last, Harry glares at a book while Hermione happily writes on a piece of parchment. There’s one of the three walking together with Hermione gesturing as she talks and Ron and Harry sharing looks as if they have no idea what to make of the girl walking in between them. There's one of Ginny in the Great Hall; she writing in something, and Neville desperately hopes it's not a picture of her writing in the evil diary.

There's several pictures of ghosts. There’s one of Seamus sitting on a bed with Dean sitting opposite and carefully applying face paint to him. One has Lavender and Parvati holding hands and giggling on a bench. Finally, there's one of Neville.

Colin is a good photographer, but the picture, in Neville's opinion, is terrible.

His robes are messy, he has on large earmuffs, dirt and sweat on his face, and he's sticking his tongue out in concentration while he bottle-feeds a fussy mandrake. Oak is resting on his shoulder and seems to look right at the camera with the shimmering bubble Professor Sprout put around him to protect him from the mandrake's cries only visible if the clipping is turned just right.

"Well," Gran says to Colin, "I can see why your parents are proud; you're very talented, young man."

"Thank you, ma'am!"

"If you'll excuse us, Neville needs to get on the train."

She leads him away.

He climbs up on the train's step, and she gives him a worried look.

"Gran, why would Sirius Black want to have anything to do with me? I know Pettigrew was a hero, but really, it's sort of his- I mean, not his fault, but he was the real target. Those muggles just-"

Pettigrew made a mistake with going after Black around all those muggles, but Neville can't bring himself to blame the man. His friend and his friend's wife were killed, Harry was who knew where, and everyone thought Black would make sure they were safe. Neville imagines he wasn't thinking as clearly as he usually would and was focused too much on trying to make sure the Potters would have some sort of justice.

In the end, it was Black who made the choice to cast the spell and kill them along with Pettigrew. Neville’s heard he laughed afterwards, and it was probably the same way Malfoy had laughed when he learned Hermione had been petrified.

"I know," she says. "Do you have your money?"

He shows it to her.

"Good. I'll owl Minerva your permission slip. Listen to her, and stay out of trouble. Work harder on your classes."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Go inside.” She taps his trunk and makes it float up.

Nodding, he drags the trunk into the train.

0

_A little boy crawls into the room, looking up at the large bed._

_Suddenly, he's floated up, the sensation making him sick to his stomach._

_"Still crawling even though you can walk, huh," the old man says, reaching over to pet his head. "Sometimes wonder if my son is really your father. That cow he took went on so many missions, not hard at all to believe she'd have to do things to prove herself."_

_The little boy brings his fingers to his mouth._

_"Never wanted him, anyway. And now, I'll never be able to see the boy I helped create be returned. But don't you worry; your grandmother, her fool of a brother, and that goblin will always make sure you're safe." With that, he takes his last breath._

_The little boy reaches out, insistently shaking the old man's arm. Some part of him, however, realises that the old man is forever gone._

_He begins to cry._

/

_"I don't want to play with him!"_

/

_He shivers, looking down, the ground seeming to move._

_"Algie!"_

_He falls._

/

"Neville!"

He snaps awake.

He’s incredibly cold and unhappy.

"Here," Lavender Brown says. She helps him sit up properly and gives him a piece of chocolate. "It's dementors, but the new Defence professor made them go away. He said chocolate would help."

After eating the chocolate, he's relieved to feel warmth coming back to him. "Dementors?"

"Sirius Black," she answers. "They were searching for him."

Suddenly, he remembers he didn’t fall asleep alone.

"Oak!"

He hurriedly digs Oak out of his pockets, and he’s shaking more violently than Neville has ever seen.

Neville gently pets him. “It’s okay. Lavender, do you have anymore?"

She nods and hands him some.

"Here." He brings a small piece up to Oak. "This'll help. Come on."

However, Oak continues shaking and refuses to open his mouth.

"Oak, I know you don't feel good, but it's chocolate. Just a small bite," Neville pleads.

The compartment door opens.

Neville looks up to see Padma Patil.

"Padma," Lavender says, "we need to help Neville's rat; he's refusing to eat the chocolate."

"Okay," Padma says. She sits down. "Lavender, you hold him. I'll melt some of the chocolate. Neville, when I force his mouth open, you need to smear the chocolate inside."

Reluctantly, Neville hands the almost vibrating Oak over to Lavender. She holds him firmly while Padma melts the chocolate in Neville's hands. Then, she mutters a spell, Oak's mouth snaps open, and distressed sounds emit.

Quickly, Neville rubs his fingers in the chocolate and smears them on Oak's tongue and inner cheeks.

Padma lets Oak close his mouth and helps clean Neville's hands.

When Oak’s handed back, he's stopped shaking, but Neville can tell he's still unhappy. Cupping his hand under his chest, he lowers Oak under his shirt with the other. Inside, Oak curls up on the edge of the hand and nudges against the bare skin before settling.   

0

After the feast, he finds himself attacked again.

"Get off!"

"Bloody cat, get off him!"

Neville scrambles up. "You again!" He points at the cat Ron's holding.

Realising how ridiculous he likely looks, he puts his finger down.

"Sorry, Neville," Ron says with a firm hold on the hissing cat. "This monster is Crookshanks. The final proof that Hermione is irrefutably mental!"

"Ronald Weasley, what are you-" Hermione appears in a night robe.

"This beast just attacked Neville!"

"Again," Neville adds.

As Hermione takes the cat, Neville pulls Oak out and explains what happened in the pet shop.

"I'm sorry, Neville," Hermione says. "I'll try to keep him away from Oak."

Putting Oak back in the pocket, Neville nods. "Thanks, Hermione."

He goes to the dorm.

Once everyone is there, Ron announces, "We went to Egypt this summer.” He shows off a newspaper clipping of his whole family dressed in Egyptian clothing.

0

In Herbology, Professor Sprout says, "Now, it's important not to tickle them until they turn red.”

Neville looks down at the seeds. They're going to grow jumping baby Banshee cabbage plants.

His mum hated Herbology, and his dad dropped it as soon as he could despite the Os. Gran thinks Herbology's mostly worthless. Uncle Algie seems to find his interest funny.

"Mister Longbottom, do you know what the correct method for planting is?"

Why does she always ask me, he wonders. What happens when I don't know the answer?

"During the full moon, you put them in warm water for sixteen minutes, ma'am, and then, you put them in a clean pot, cover them with dirt, and then, you cover the pot with a green sheet until the next full moon."

"Five points for Gryffindor, Mister Longbottom."

He feels a swell of pride.

Ron nudges him and smiles, and Hermione says, "Well done, Neville."

"Now, Miss Granger, can you tell me what uses Banshee cabbages have?"

"Professor, can we talk about what the bad things are? Do they really have something to do with Banshees," Seamus pipes up.

Dean sighs and starts to smack him with a book only for Professor Sprout to summon it away. "Books are not to be used as weapons, Mister Thomas. Does anyone besides Miss Granger and Mister Longbottom know the answer to Mister Finnigan's question?"

Malfoy, of course, raises his hand.

"Mister Malfoy."

"Unless certain roots are cut out during the sixth month, Banshees are able to control the cabbage by ordering it to poison the skin of whomever tickles it when it begins jumping."

"And we're growing these things?"

Neville doesn't think he's ever seen Seamus so terrified. He backs away from his table, drops his package of seeds, and almost trips over a stray rake before Dean reaches over to grab him.

"Mister Finnigan, I can assure you there are no Banshees anywhere near Hogwarts."

"No offence, Professor, but there used to not be any dementors or threat of mass murderers, either!"

Shivering, Neville looks down. Setting his seeds down, he reaches into his pocket to withdraw a sleeping Oak.

"Neither is a threat to any of you," Professor Sprout says. "Headmaster Dumbledore will make sure of that. Now, until the first full moon, your assignment will be to write a parchment on previous assignments during the lesson. This period, we'll cut short. Come prepared next time."

There's a murmur of excitement filling the room, and she says, "Class dismissed."

Ignoring the guilt, Neville tries to quickly leave with the others but is stopped. "Mister Longbottom."

"Ma'am," Neville says.

He doesn’t want to explain why he was trying to leave when he's been staying after class since the second or third lesson in his first year.

"Due to your talent and diligence in this class, I'm going to give you an option for an alternate assignment. If you'd rather, you can pick a certain plant and write about it in a notebook I give you. I'll expect the notebook to be completely filled by the end of the year."

Thoughts flash through his mind of the types of plants he could write about- the mandrakes, devil's snare, or something more ordinary like ivies or snapdragons- but then, he remembers his mum's book.

"Thank you, Professor," he says, "but I'll do the regular assignment."

She looks at him. "It's your choice. If you don't mind me asking, however, is there a particular reason?"

"I'm not that interested in Herbology, anymore," he says with a heavy weight in his stomach. "I want to focus on other things."

Nodding, she reaches over to pat him. "Well, I wish you the best of luck, dear. But I'm still going to hold you to a higher standard than the others. While in this class, you're to give it your all."

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you."

0

He’s walking to Defence with Dean and Seamus and trying not to laugh at Dean’s chagrined expression.

"Seamus," Dean patiently says, "there aren't any werewolves at Hogwarts. Dumbledore wouldn't-"

"Like he wouldn't allow dementors."

"Well, they're not allowed inside the castle," Neville tries to point out.

"Oh, that makes it all better! So, when we're growing weapons for Banshees, that's when we should be worried about bloody werewolves! I dunno know about you two, but I like not turning into a murderous beast."

Neville notices Professor Lupin watching them closely. He's even thinner than his picture, and his hair has gray in it.

"Hello, boys," he quietly greets.

"We're not going to be dealing with werewolves, are we," Seamus inquires. "Last year, it was Cornish pixies. I'd rather take them, again."

Dean sighs, steps on Seamus's foot, and offers his hand to the professor. "Professor Lupin, I'm Dean Thomas, and this my best mate, Seamus Finnigan, and our housemate, Neville Longbottom. We've tried explaining to Shay that, if we were to put him in a werewolf colony, they'd find a way to summon the Knight Bus and put him on it with a note explaining that they didn't want him, but he just won't listen."

Shaking Dean’s hand, Professor Lupin says, "Well, I can assure you, Seamus, that no werewolf will attack you."

"What about Banshees? At least, Mam will finally have to let me have rare steak if I turn into a werewolf. There's no-"

Reaching over, Dean grabs Seamus. "We'll just- Er, Professor, where are the desks? And chairs?"

Startled, Neville notices this a valid question. Only the professor's desk and chair are in the room.

Professor Lupin smiles. "Ah, yes. Today's lesson is going to be practical in nature."

Seamus tries to edge closer to the door.

This strikes Neville as a wonderful idea. He doesn't fancy being hung from the chandelier, again.

The idea of trying to quietly slip out only increases when Professor Lupin announces they're going to be fighting a boggat and calls Neville first.

0

After class, Neville waits until everyone leaves.

Professor Lupin knew his parents and might be willing to talk about them. Professor McGonagall and the headmaster did, too, but McGonagall is more his grandmother's friend than someone he can talk to, and Neville knows better than to bother the headmaster.

"Good job today, Neville," Lupin says with a pat on the back.

"Thank you, sir," he says.

Sighing, he starts to leave but notices something in the professor's study. "Sir, is that a Snapping Ivy?"

Following his eyes, Lupin says, "Ah. Honestly, I'm unsure what that plant is. You may examine it if you'd like. I acquired it at my last job as an assistant at a florist shop."

"You worked at a florist shop?"

Even to his own ears, Neville sounds much too excited.

For a moment, Lupin seems suspicious. "I take it you have an appreciation for the art of Herbology."

"I'm good at it," Neville answers while looking at the plant. It's a definitely a Snapping Ivy, but he can tell it hasn't been cared for properly. It's a puny, weak thing that’s been over-watered, has started to rot at the roots due to not having fresh dirt and fertiliser, and has likely never been trimmed.

"Sir-” He has no idea how to tell a professor they're doing things completely wrong.

"Why don't you take the plant to Professor Sprout for me? After classes have ended, of course. Perhaps, you and she can do more than I can."

There's a small squeak, and Neville looks down to see Oak popping his head out of the pocket.

Looking curious, Lupin comments, "What an interesting rat.” 

Oak promptly retreats fully back inside.

"That's Oak, Professor."

"Yes, I'd heard you had a pet rat. Tell me, how long have you had him?"

"I'm not exactly sure, sir. My gran says I've had him since I was five, but most of the Weasleys think I've had him since I was seven or eight. My great-uncle, he thinks I got him when I was six. Whenever it was, I found Oak near my favourite spot in the garden. He didn't really take to Gran or the wizard we took him to, but I shared my candy with him. He's been mine ever since."

The warning bell rings, and Lupin nods. "Best get to your next class."  

0

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaims.

Harry sighs, strides forward, picks Hermione's cat up, and ignores the hissing and attempts to scratch him.

Ron quickly picks a shaking Oak up and pets him. "It's alright. We'll find Neville for you.” He puts Oak in his pocket. “Bloody menace of cat," he mutters.

Hermione appears. "Harry, Ron, what are you doing to Crookshanks?"

"Why don't you ask him what he was trying to do to Oak?"

Carefully handing him back, Harry says, "Hermione, Ron has a point. Your cat is trying to hurt an innocent rat. Neville's rat. At most, Oak was just trying to nick someone's sweets, again. Ever since you got Crookshanks, it seems the only safe place for him is Neville's pockets. He shouldn't be afraid to wander around the tower." 

"He's a cat," Hermione insists.

"So? Hedwig's an owl, and you don't see her trying to eat Oak!"

"Even Mrs Norris leaves the pets alone, Hermione."

Hermione glares before stomping away.

0

Neville blinks.

He’s relatively sure he just had his mum's book in front of him. He looks at Oak, but Oak gives him an uninterested look before going back to chewing on his pumpkin cauldron.

"What's this?"

He looks up to see Ginny Weasley holding the book extremely gingerly with her wand pointed at it. "This isn't your handwriting."

Remembering Ginny has a good reason to be a little-, he pushes aside his annoyance. "Ginny, look at the inside cover. This was my mum's book. She hated the subject.”

He hopes she didn't happen to read the part saying, 'Threaten to sell Lilly Potter to the dementors if she doesn't help with collecting pus'.

Looking, Ginny says, "Oh.”

Handing the book back, she mumbles, "Sorry.”

"It's okay," he says. Picking up one of the cauldrons, he asks, "Would you like some?"

Nodding, she sits down.

"Would you like me to get one of your brothers?"

"I'm not mental."

"I know," he tells her. Hesitating, he says, "If I'd been the one to find the diary, it probably would happened to me. Or to a lot of people."

"So, er, your mum really couldn't tell the difference between a garden gnome and a baby Venus Flytrap?"

He sighs. "My mum couldn't tell the difference between a sunflower and a daisy. Harry's mum had a lot of fun at her expense."

"That's why she was willing to pay fifty galleons to have her hexed?"

"She once stuck Gran to the wall when she thought Gran was mistreating a goblin."

Ginny smiles.  

Before either can say anything more, the Weasley twins appear. "Oi, Ginny, help us out. We need to reach something, and you're the only one small enough to crawl inside."

Shaking her head, Ginny follows them.

0

If Neville ever needed an utterly selfish reason to hate Sirius Black, the Fat Lady being so frightened she’s resigned from guarding the tower and left him to deal with an insanely annoying portrait is more than enough.

"You have to give me all the passwords," Neville insists.

He has to do something. Yesterday, he and Oak came in late from helping Professor Sprout with the Snapping Ivy, and it took an hour for someone to realise he wasn't anywhere inside the tower.

"Well," the portrait huffs. "Aren't you an impudent chap." 

"I'm sorry," Neville says, "but I don't fancy being locked out all the time. Would you, please, just give them to me?"

"Very well," is the still somewhat miffed response.

Neville begins writing.

0

Harry blinks.

_Neville Longbottom. Peter Pettigrew._

That can't be right, he thinks. If so-

Jumping out of bed and grabbing his wand, Harry rushes over to Neville's bed, pulls aside the curtains, and ignores Oak scurrying past him. Neville mutters when the light from Harry's wand hits his face but otherwise stays soundly asleep.

Looking down at the map, he sees Pettigrew is supposedly in the common room.

Quickly, Harry grabs Neville's arm and begins trying to get him out of bed.

"'arry?"

"You need to sleep with Seamus and Dean, Neville.” He puts Neville's arms in a straight-jacket position and leads him over to Seamus's bed. Shaking Seamus, he says, "Seamus, Neville needs to sleep here.”

Keeping his eyes closed while he stands, Seamus inquires, "Doesn't have any Banshees, does he?”

"Er, no." Harry pushes Neville down next to Dean. "Back in bed, Seamus."

"Right. Don't forget the ketchup, it's the best part," Seamus says. He crawls in beside Neville.

Closing the curtains, Harry looks down at the map.

Pettigrew isn't in the tower.

He leaves.

Pettigrew is supposed to be dead.

Looking down, he sees the map shows Ron in his bed, Seamus, Dean, and Neville close together, and Hermione with Crookshanks on top of her. He wonders where Oak is and starts to look-

"Potter," Snape’s cold voice snaps.

"Mischief managed," he mutters and is grateful to see the map disappearing as he turns. 

0

In the common room, Dean looks at Ron and Harry when Hermione tearfully runs past them.

If Neville thought he wouldn’t be yelled at again, he tried to stop her from going upstairs and talk to her.

Dean asks, "When are the two of you going to forgive Hermione? The broom's fine, isn't it?"

Both boys shoot him an irritable look.

"That's not the point," Ron says. Harry nods. "She hasn't even apologised."

Neville looks down at Oak. He doesn't understand why Hermione didn't try to talk to them, first, before going to McGonagall, but sometimes, he wants to remind them how, last year, she was turned to stone for some time.

Doesn't that matter?

Oak finishes his sugar quill, and Neville tells them, "I'm going to turn in."

"Night, Neville," they say.

He closes his curtains, turns off his lamp, and lets Oak get settled under the pyjamas and onto his chest before covering up.

Later, he wakes up to find someone standing over him.

"'arry," he mutters.

The figure hesitates, and Neville sits up and fumbles for his lamp. Oak falls out of his pyjamas.

Suddenly, as if on instinct, Neville moves.

The figure lunges forward with a knife, and he feels a sharp pain go through his arm and screams.

Before the figure disappears, the moonlight hits his face, and Neville finds himself staring at Sirius Black.

0

"Sirius Black," Professor McGonagall repeats.

Her tone annoys him. "Yes, ma'am."

"How could Black get into the castle," Dean wonders with a yawn.

"I don't know, but he was here."

"Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"

"Does the bloody cut on my arm look like something a dream could do, Seamus?"

McGonagall looks thoughtful.

"It is possible," Percy Weasley says, and Neville suddenly understands why his brothers often seem so annoyed with him, "that Longbottom could have injured himself, as well as destroying the curtains, while-"

Taking a deep breath, Neville steels himself and blurts out, "Minerva McGonagall, you listen to me!" Ignoring the realisation he's likely going to be in trouble until he's seventeen, he continues, "Y-you've known me since I was only a few days old. Have I ever told anything bigger than a small fib? This would count as more than that, w-wouldn't it? Fine, maybe I'm wrong, and it was just a dream. But I don't believe it was, and wouldn't it be better to be on the safe side and a-assume it wasn't?"

He fidgets when he feels everyone looking at him but tries to keep standing tall.

"Very well," McGonagall says. "Mister Weasley, find Sir Cadogan."

Neville's relief at being taken seriously lasts right up until he and everyone else realises Sirius Black got in because of the passwords he wrote down.

"Come with me, Mister Longbottom," Professor McGonagall orders. "The rest of you, follow Mister Weasley to the Great Hall."

0

"There," Madam Pomfrey says.

"And-"

"Mister Longbottom, the rat wasn't harmed in anyway. Yes, I'm sure. No, I'm not going to examine him for a third time. Let the creature sleep.

"Now, now, Poppy," Dumbledore says. He puts a hand on Neville's shoulder. "He's been through a trying night. Be a good lad and go with Professor McGonagall to the Great Hall."

"Yes, sir," Neville says.

He follows Professor McGonagall.

Not sure how to handle the awkward silence, he says, "I want to send Oak home."

She sighs. "Your grandmother is going to want you to come home once she hears about this, though, I assure you, she'll be proud of how well you stood up for yourself earlier."

"I'm sorry, Professor. For the passwords, too."

"You must be more careful in the future," she says. "Assuming you stay here."

"I-I want to stay, ma'am. But I still want to send Oak home. With Hermione's cat, and now, this-"

They come to the Great Hall.

"We can discuss it further in the morning. Into a sleeping bag, Neville," she says and briefly rubs his back.

He's happy to see Hermione, Ron, and Harry are all bundled together.

"C'mon, Neville," Seamus says. He pulls him down on a sleeping bag between him and Dean. "I can't believe you used McGonagall's first name!"

"That was pretty cool," Dean says with a nod.

"In bed," a nearby Slytherin prefect orders.

0

"Thanks for this, Harry," Neville says.

Harry shakes his head. "It's the least I can do. Don't worry, Neville; Hedwig will get Oak to your grandmother safely."

Oak squeaks.

Picking the cage up Dumbledore had made, Neville slips a non-jumping chocolate frog inside. Dean had helped Neville put a soft, cut towel on the bottom and made it stick. "I'm sorry," he says. "But it's only for a little while. Gran'll let you out as soon as you get there. You'll be safer there."

In response, Oak begins eating the frog, and Neville hopes this is a sign of Oak understanding instead of Oak deciding to ignore him because he's annoyed.

Harry attaches the cage to Hedwig.

"Goodbye," Neville says. Then, he feels it's important to add, "I love you, Oak."

He watches in relief as Hedwig flies away.

0

A squeak alerts Hedwig to something being wrong.

She looks, sees the bottom of the cage is gone, and the rat is rapidly falling.

Immediately, she dives down and feels the sting of magic, darkness overtaking her.

Carefully, Dumbledore picks the still-breathing owl up and removes the cage. "I'm sorry," he says. 

0

Ginny sits down. "Is there anything I can do?"

Shaking his head, Neville looks dully into the flames. "He was small enough I could have handed him to Gran through a floo call. I should have begged for her to come here to get him. Put him on the Knight Bus. Something."

"Neville-"

"Ginny, it's not that I don't appreciate it, but there isn't anything you can say. I k-know I'm not good at much, but ever since I was little, I've managed to keep Oak safe and happy. He's never liked cages, you know, but I thought- It was only for a short time, and Gran would have given him a small spoon of butterbeer, and he could-" Shaking his head, Neville stands up. "Sorry. But I need to be alone."

0

In Hagrid’s hut, Hermione announces, "Ron! Harry! I found Oak."

Both boys jump up.

"Bloody hell," Ron says. Taking Oak, he says, "I reckon you have more lives in you than a cat."

Shivering, Oak curls up.

"It's alright," he says. "We'll get you back to Neville. You have no idea how much he's been missing you."

0

To Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, Ron flatly declares, "You're mental. Oak's been Neville's for-"

"Less than twelve years," Lupin quietly points out. "Everyone has always assumed he's an old rat. If that were the case-"

"Missing a toe, isn't he," Sirius Black manically inquires.

"So what? He had a hard life before Neville found him," Ron snaps. "Oak's nothing but a fat, spoiled rat! The worst he's ever done was take a small bite out of Fred or George once when they upset Neville. For Merlin's sake, he didn't even break the skin!"

Harry doesn't like the thought, but he finds himself looking at the rat Ron and Hermione are trying to protect. At the start of the term, Neville had mentioned how Oak was affected by Sirius Black's escape. He’d also thanked Lavender for helping him with getting Oak to eat chocolate after the dementors had come. The map- Pettigrew was literally on top of Neville, and Oak usually sleeps on Neville's chest.  

"If- if Oak really is just a regular rat, will it hurt him?"

"Harry!"

"No," Lupin softly promises. "Harry, I would never intentionally hurt a student's pet. If this rat is, as Ron says, nothing but a common garden rat, you can take him back to Neville; the spell won't affect him."

Please, Harry thinks, please, let me have to explain to Neville why I let a mass murderer and werewolf perform an experiment on his rat. Please, let Oak be nothing but a sweet-stealing, constantly napping rat who loves Neville. "Ron, let them have him," he grimly orders.

"No! Oak," Ron exclaims. He tries to kick Lupin away with his unbroken leg.

Hermione holds him back when he tries to force himself after Lupin.

Harry watches as Oak is revealed to be Peter Pettigrew.

"I let you sleep in my bed," is Ron’s horrified response "Neville- You used to take baths with me and Neville!" At Harry's look, he defensively snaps, "We were little kids, and if you tell anyone, I'll murder you. But- you," he says to Pettigrew, "you- Ugh!"

0

"Ron- Ron, he's gone-" Hermione says.

"Don't you ever come back to Neville, Pettigrew! If you do, I'll kill you myself," Ron screams when the rat disappears into the night. 

0

The three sit together in the hospital wing.

"Should- Does- I don't know what to do about Neville," Hermione says.

Sighing, Ron leans back. "Harry, we have to tell Mrs Longbottom, at least. O- Pettigrew knows where they live. He can get in. He knows where Algie Longbottom lives, and if he were to show up there- And I don't know what all Neville's told him, but I reckon he literally knows more about Neville than anyone.”

0

The Snapping Ivy tries to smack him, and Neville dodges. He has on extra layers of clothing, but it would still hurt.

"Hey, Neville."

"Hey, Harry," he answers. "Don't come any closer. It's a bit angry at the moment."

Again, the plant tries to smack him.

“I’m sorry, but you need to be trimmed,” he says.

Harry sits a safe distance away. "It's gotten a lot bigger.”

Nodding, Neville tells him, "Professor Sprout is really proud of me. She says it's mostly because of me. I'm made a list for Professor Lupin."

Harry sighs.

"Are you okay, Harry? Ron and Hermione?"

"Yeah. Listen, Neville, can you come over here, away from the plant for a minute?"

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Neville complies. "What's up, Harry?"

"When that dog attacked Ron- We found Oak, Neville. Only, he was dead. I-I'm sorry."

Neville sighs. "I was pretty sure," he says. "The body-"

"Neville," Harry interrupts. "Professor Lupin wanted to talk to you himself, but I convinced him to let me talk to you first. When he found us, he made Oak's body disappear. It was a scary situation for all of us, and- He just made a mistake."

He can't even give Oak a proper burial.

"Thanks, Harry.” He reaches over to clasp Harry's shoulder. "For telling me. D-don't worry. I won't make things harder for Lupin. After all, he saved you the others."

"I'm sorry about Hedwig-"

"Harry, I don't blame you. It wasn't anyone's fault that someone- probably Black- decided to stun her." He shakes his head. "I hate him."

"He's not a threat," Harry promises.

"I hope you're right. I hope he's somewhere far away, somewhere he can never hurt anyone else."

0

In the library, he hears, "Heard about your rat."

Neville frowns. "I suppose that makes you happy."

Making a face, Malfoy sits down across from him. "Someday, Longbottom, you are going to realise how pathetically stupid you really are. There are things going on that even Granger doesn't see."

"But you do," Neville says.

He wonders why Malfoy goes through the process every year of explaining how pathetic Neville is and how Malfoy knows so much more.

"Yes, I do," Malfoy snaps. "But she's a mudblood-"

"Don't call her that!"

"And so, she doesn't need parental permission for certain things. Meanwhile, my parents have a say in what I can and can't do."

"You've completely lost me." He's definitely not going to disregard Malfoy purposefully doing so, but if this is Malfoy trying to make an actual point, he feels compelled to tell him he's not doing a good job of it.

Malfoy scoffs. "I could have done things better."

"What things?"

"Listen, Longbottom, if I had my way, I'd finish school, leave Potter and you and everyone else to their own pathetic lives. But sides have to be taken. Someday, you're going to find out that the people you love are capable of doing horrible things. You're going to find out a lot of things were nothing but a lie. And I'm going to take great pleasure in laughing when you finally have to stop being the poor, sheltered little fat boy."

"I trust my family, and I trust Harry and them," Neville firmly replies. "And they trust me."

"People once trusted Pettigrew," Malfoy snaps. "And look where he is now."

Before Neville can respond, Malfoy continues, "He wasn't a hero. He was as cowardly as that rat of yours. Once people figure that out, just like with him, they'll stop trusting you. It won't matter how honest you are. Or how pathetic."

Malfoy gets up and storms away. 

0

At the end of the term, he stays after Defence.

He’d wondered what Gran’s problem with Lupin was, and now, he knows.

What he doesn’t know is why some people have such a problem they’ve been sending Dumbledore howlers. Gran might not particularly feel safe around unknown werewolves, but she trusted Lupin enough to take his potion and do the other things he needed to do in order to keep others safe.

"Neville.”

"Professor," he answers. "I don't think you should have to leave."

"Thank you. That means a lot. Though, I imagine Seamus will be relieved."

"No, sir," he says. "Seamus likes you, too."

Lupin gives him a sad smile.

Nodding, Neville holds out a rolled up parchment. "Professor Sprout said that you weren't going to leave the Snapping Ivy with her. I m-made a list. Hermione made it waterproof and untearable. Er, I wasn't sure what name to put, so, I put RL on it, but I put that part in erasable ink."

Taking the list, the professor unrolls it, erases the name, writes something, and hands it back.

Curious, Neville looks down.

_Neville Longbottom._

"I've talked to your grandmother. I was hoping you'd take it," Lupin says. "As you saw at the start of the year, it's obvious I'm no good at caring for it, and even with a list- well, a werewolf's life is not one for a plant. Pomona has said that's its grown very attached to you."

"Sir- Professor-" Neville doesn't know what to say.

Clasping his shoulder, Lupin says, "You have gift for Herbology, Neville. That's nothing to be ashamed of." Sighing, he continues, "I'm sorry about your pet. If it means anything, you were the best owner he could have asked for."

"I know what everyone thought, sir," Neville says. "That Oak wasn't worth much. But he was my friend."

"I think- the fact he made you happy counts for something," Lupin says with a squeeze.  

He walks out before Neville can say thank you.

0

On the last school night, Harry looks over at Neville.

He has his hands curled on his chest where O- Peter Pettigrew used to sleep.

The sight causes a heavy sigh.


	4. Chapter 4

Neville stumbles out of bed.

His Snapping Ivy smacks the back of his leg.

"Sorry," he mutters.

In the kitchen, he finds Gran and Teller Bornuk having tea.

"Good morning," he says.

Reaching over to shake his hand, Teller Bornuk says, "Good morning.”

Standing up, Gran hands him a plate. "Here. You're up early."

"I'm fine, Gran," he assures her. 

Not looking completely convinced, she sits back down. "I've been thinking we should attend the World Quidditch Cup."

He looks up. "The three of us?"

"No," she answers with a frown. "Just you and I."

"Your grandmother would likely kill me," Teller Bornuk notes. "She'd knock me off the bleachers in such a way as to ensure plausible deniability."

"If you had a wand, that wouldn't be such a concern."

"It also wouldn't be a concern if you weren't the type to try to knock an innocent goblin off such a large fall."

"Gran, would you pass the pumpkin juice,” he asks when she starts to reach for her wand.

She does. "Anyway, Bornuk has offered us tickets."

"Where'd you get tickets, Teller Bornuk," he asks.

"Neville!"

"There was nothing wrong with the question," Teller Bornuk says. "I bought them early. My original plans for them didn't work out, and I thought perhaps I could bribe your grandmother into stop coming into Gringotts every week."

"Not a chance," Gran retorts.

Neville remembers how Oak would sit on his shoulder during Quidditch matches. Whenever Gryffindor won, he'd stand on his hind legs and nudge Neville's ear in celebration. "That sounds nice. Thank you, Teller Bornuk."

Teller Bornuk gives him a sympathetic smile.

0

There are people everywhere.

"Stay close," Gran says with a firm hold on his hand. "We should've come earlier," she mutters.

They come up to a ticket holder, and he says, "Ma'am, you can't wear that hat."

"It's not enchanted," Gran protests.

"Nevertheless, it's not something most muggles would wear," he explains. "It'll scare them."

"It's a hat," she argues.

"We're not allowing people to wear fur, either," the holder says. "Some muggles get very offended, and they try to interact with us."

"That's taking things much too far. I can understand not wearing robes or enchanted items, but-"

"What's the hold up?" Draco Malfoy's arrogant voice demands.

"You mind your own business, young man," Gran orders.

Malfoy tilts his head. "Where's your rat, Longbottom? Can't imagine you not smuggling him in."

"You know that he's dead!" Neville snaps and starts to move forward.

Gran stops him and orders, "Neville, pay no attention to him.” Turning back to the holder, she says, "Muggle fashions have their oddities. I'm sure-"

"Ma'am, I don't make the rules," the holder says. "Please, just hand the hat over. It'll be returned to you-"

"Oh, just let them go," Malfoy interrupts. "With all the daft old fools running around in dresses, no one's going to pay any attention to an old woman with a tacky vulture hat."

"Shut it, Malfoy," Neville snaps.

"Neville," Gran warns.

Giving a loud sigh, the holder says, "Tickets, please.”

"Watch out," Malfoy says in an unpleasantly cheerful way.

0

As they look for a place to set up the tent Uncle Algie loaned them, Gran says, "I wonder where that boy's parents are."

"His parents are worse than he is," Neville points out.

"Augusta!"

They look over to see Arthur Weasley, the twins, and Hermione.

"Hello, Arthur," she says.

Hermione hugs him, and a warm feeling goes through him. 

"Care for some sweets, Neville," one of the twins ask.

"No," Hermione sharply answers. "Neville, don't eat or drink anything they try to give to you. I had to brush my teeth three times this morning," she says with a glare. "They've decided they want to open a joke shop after they graduate."

He notices, even though they're taller and heavier, they still shrink back.

"Personally," one of them says, "I thought the blue teeth gave you a certain exotic charm."

Mr Weasley almost yells, "Fred! Did you give Neville any of those-"

"No," one of them answers. "We offered, but Hermione objected on his behalf."

Mr Weasley sighs. "Neville, don't accept any food or drinks-"

"Already been warned," one of the twins interjects.

"Pity that. We still haven't found anybody to test-"

"You can't just go around using people as test subjects," Hermione snaps.

Turning back to Gran, Mr Weasley asks, "Can we help you set up your tent, Augusta?"

0

Holding the enchanted clover a leprechaun gave him, Neville bubbles, "Thank you for bringing me here, Gran!”

She smiles. "I'm glad you had such a good time, dear."

Setting his clover down, he says, "I'm going to the loo."

Nodding, she says, "I'm going to go talk to Arthur for a minute. Will you be alright?"

"Yes, Gran," he answers.

"Don't take that tone," she orders. She kisses him on the forehead. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

After he's done, he crawls into bed and examines the clover. Leprechaun gold and rainbows never last long, but he doesn't know about plants. Hopefully, it'll last long enough for him to show it to Professor Sprout.

A loud boom startles him.

Getting up, he cautiously peeks outside.

Death eaters, he sees.

Witnessing one of them blast a tent, he quickly slips out and desperately tries to remember which tent is the Weasley’s.

Someone bumps into him, and he sees it's the loony, blonde Ravenclaw girl who skips around Hogwarts. "Are you okay?"

She nods, and he sees her wand is drawn.

Neville wishes he had his.

"The Knight Bus won't come."

Grabbing her wrist, he starts walking. "No, it won't. Four years ago, Mr Prang had to constantly go off-schedule to pick up drunken people who caused all sorts of trouble. He flat-out told the ministry he wouldn't take the Knight Bus to the Cup this year. Who are you looking for?"

"No one," she answers. "Daddy sent me by myself."

"We have to find my gran; she'll help get you home."

A death eater appears a few feet in front of them, and hoping his shaking legs don't give out, Neville starts to stand in front of her. 

Pulling at him, she says, "No. I have my wand."

Some part protests, but the practical part realises her wand has a better chance of protecting her and him than he does.

The death eater advances, and she points her wand. "Oh," she says. "I recognise your eyes. It wasn't broinistiz."

Before Neville can figure out what in the world she's talking about, the death eater vanishes.

They link their fingers together, and he asks, "What was that about?”

"I'm not sure," she answers. "Do you have any idea where your grandmother might be?"

"The Weasleys. If we can find one of them or Hermione or Harry, they can help."

"Neville?"

"Dean, Seamus!" He sees them nearby with light emitting from both of their wands. Dean has his fingers around Seamus’s wrist.

Nearby, another tent explodes.

"Not me," Seamus quickly declares. "We have to get out of here, now. You," he says with a look at Luna, "what are you? Blood status wise."

"I'm not sure," she answers. "I'm not very good at maths. Does anyone have some quill and paper? I can probably figure-"

Seamus snaps, "Look, are you muggle-born or pureblood?"

"No."

"You first," he says. Dean lets go of his wrist. Reaching over to take her free hand, he motions for Neville to let go of the other and says, "Next time, when someone asks, just say you're half. Unless it's someone like Malfoy. Then, tell the bastard that it's none of his damn business."

Seamus starts walking, and suddenly, there's a gray ball. It moves slightly before completely disappearing with a small pop.

"Did- did Seamus just apparate?"

Dean grins. "He's been able to apparate since he was twelve. Recently, his mum's been letting him practise side-along."

A gray ball reappears, and suddenly, Seamus is standing front of them. "Come on."

"Shay," Dean says, "you've never done-"

"You're muggle-born, and we're not leaving Neville alone. Now, come on."

Neville takes Seamus's right hand, and Dean takes his left. They begin walking, and the next thing Neville knows he's on his knees and throwing up.

When he finally starts to reorient himself, he feels a gentle hand rubbing his back and realises he's been throwing up in a bin. "There, lad," a light Irish voice says. "You okay?"

"Yes," Neville croaks.

He's led to a couch and handed a cup. "Small sips, now."

The cold butterbeer washes away the taste and settles his stomach. He looks over to see a plump man with sandy-blond hair and Seamus's eyes. Smiling, he reaches over and ruffles Neville's hair. "You did better than I did the first time my wife took me somewhere that way. Colum Finnigan," he says and offers his hand.

Shaking it, he says, "Hullo, sir. Neville Longbottom.”

"Dad-"

Neville looks over to see Seamus and Dean standing nearby. Over on the floor, the Ravenclaw girl is sitting on the floor and making motions in the air with her hands.

"No," Mr Finnigan says. "Your mam can take care of herself. I'm keeping your wand until-"

"I can apparate without it!"

"Shay," Dean says with an uncomfortable look between the two.

"Everyone knows she's married to a muggle! Dean can protect you. Someone needs to-"

"Seamus, you're fourteen-years-old. I may not be able to do magic, but I can protect you more than you can protect your mother. Now, I'm not going to argue in front of your friends." He glances over at the girl. "Speaking of which, I know you did that a lot when you were a babe, but is-"

"She's fine," Seamus snaps.

"Yes," the girl says. "I've never experienced apparition before; the colours are very pretty."

Sitting down next to him, Dean explains, "Sometimes, when people apparate, they see coloured shapes for about an hour. I've never seen them, but Seamus does. If you poke them, they change colours, and sometimes, they can be moved around and stuff. Shay mostly ignores them, now."

"An owl's been sent to find your grandmother," Mr Finnigan says. "Why don't you go to Seamus's room? Dean, may I have your wand?"

"You never trust me!"

"Give me a reason to," Mr Finnigan responds while taking Dean's wand.

Seamus opens his mouth, but Dean jumps up and grabs him. "Come on, Neville. Believe it or not, there's a channel that's exclusively about plants. I think you'll like it."

"Channel," Neville asks.

"Oh, right. You've never watched TV, have you? This'll be interesting."

0

Seamus's room is decorated in Quidditch posters, drawings done by Dean, and a poster of Rita Skeeter.

"Shay fancies her," Dean says with a smirk.

Seamus glares in such a way Neville knows it would be a bad idea to mention his gran's opinion on her.

Instead of one bed, Seamus has a bunk bed. There's a desk with drawing supplies, a wireless, and a deck of self-shuffling cards. Against the wall is a bizarre-looking thing Neville recognises as a TV. He's read a little about them, but he's never really understood what they did or why muggles seemed so keen on them.

Dean picks up something and points it at the TV, but before he can do anything, Seamus cocks his head. "That'll be Mam."

They go back out.

"Hello," she says. She raises an eyebrow at her son. He sees Mr Finnigan and the girl are playing wizarding chess at the kitchen table. "Coming close to having your TV taken, young man."

"Excuse me for trying to protect me friends and family," Seamus retorts.

Neville knows, if he talked to Gran like this, he'd have more to worry about than just having things taken away.

Mrs Finnigan, however, just shakes her head. Looking at Neville, she says, "You're granny's fine, dear. I found her just as the owl did. She's going to make sure everything's alright at St. Mungo's, and then, she'll take the Knight Bus here. I made sure she had the address." 

"Thank you, ma'am," he says. "May I have more to drink?"

Looking oddly at him, she answer, "Of course. Come on."

"I'll help him, Mrs Finnigan," the Ravenclaw girl says.

0

As they're going through the refrigerator, the girl looks at him intently with silver eyes.

"May I see your rat? I promise I won't hurt him. I'd just like to see him."

Sighing, Neville says, "Oak died last year."

"I'm sorry," she says.

"Thank you.” He takes a sip of the pumpkin juice.

"We once had a funeral for one of the tomcats who often came for food," she says. "Did your rat have one?"

"In a way," he answers. "When that dog attacked Harry last year, Professor Lupin went out to help them, and they had found Oak. He made the body vanish. But it-it's okay. Gran still made a little headstone, and we put it next to where Dad buried his dog. She has a headstone, too."

It's probably best not to mention how he sometimes goes, sits in front of the headstone, and talks to Oak like he's always done.

Looking uneasy, the girl wanders away, and Neville hopes he didn't upset her too badly.

0

A few weeks later, he's at the train station. For once, Gran hadn't spent a long time arguing with others about sending him somewhere else. Auror Moody had come over one day and had tea with her while Neville stayed firmly in his garden.

Later, she'd told him Moody would be filling the Defence position.

"Got your money?"

He withdraws it.

"Good. I'll go through your room and owl you anything you forget."

"Thank you, Gran."

"Working harder on your grades."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And don't write down any of the passwords!"

"Yes, Gran.”

"On you go, then."

He boards the train, finds an empty compartment, and remembering trunks can't block it, mutters a locking spell he learned last year while hoping he doesn't end up stuck in the compartment until someone realises he's missing and unlocks it for him.

Sitting down, he digs out one of his schoolbooks and feels sadness overtake him.

This is his first time riding the train without Oak. Last year, at the end of the term, he'd floo'd straight to Uncle Algie's.

He begins reading aloud.

0

After the feast, Dean says, "Shay got a VCR for his room. And I got my own private line."

"He got a phone number different from his parents'," Harry explains to Ron and Neville.

"I got a new chess set," Ron declares. "And of course, Harry got more clothes from Mum. Honestly, every day time he asks, she nearly bursts into tears. You'd think he had no taste at all."

"The stuff your mum makes is brilliant," Harry replies. "What about you, Neville?"

"Uncle Algie gave me a lunascope. Now, maybe I'll be able to get an O in astronomy, at least!" Then, remembering the clover, he digs it out. "Oh, I also got this. A leprechaun gave it to me at the Quidditch Cup. If it hasn't disappeared by tomorrow, I'm going to show it to Professor Sprout."

"It won't," Seamus says. He looks at it in admiration. "Clovers don't disappear. Blimely, you're lucky. It's rare for leprechauns to give out those. Musta liked you." Then, he says, "Speaking of leprechauns, Dean got one to pose for him."

Shyly, Dean holds up a sketch. "It was my first time sketching anyone but humans and animals," he explains.

0

"Neville."

Looking up from the essay he's recopying due to being too afraid to try a colour-changing spell, he says, "Hullo, Ginny. Have fun at Hogsmeade?"

Nodding, she sits down. "I couldn't find you, though. Where were you?"

"Here," he answers. "I'm not allowed to go."

She gives him a sceptical look. "It's only been a week. Now, my brothers, I could believe them getting into trouble that fast, but what could you have done?"

"Thanks, Ginny," he says. "Sirius Black.”

Blinking, she says, "Neville, that was last year. And even then, Professor McGonagall let you go near the end of the-"

"I think that was because of Oak," he says. "It's okay, Ginny. Really. I can catch up on my-"

Apparently, Ginny disagrees because she stands up, grabs his hand, and begins dragging him. "We're going to Professor McGonagall.” She pokes him with her wand when he uses the fact he's taller and heavier to keep himself from being dragged.

"My essay-"

She makes both papers and his book float. "Come on," she insists.

When they arrive in the classroom, Professor McGonagall looks at them. "Miss Weasley, Mister Longbottom," she says. "Why, pray tell, are two parchments and a book following the two of you?"

Neville thinks it might be better to ask why Ginny is obviously dragging him around.

"Professor McGonagall, is Neville allowed to go to Hogsmeade?"

"Of course," she answers. "Assuming Mister Longbottom hasn't managed to get himself in trouble. What exactly is this all about?"

"I told you," Ginny declares. "Professor, Neville thought that he wasn't allowed this year because of Sirius Black."

A familiar weary sigh is McGonagall's response.

"You said 'all future visits into Hogsmeade', Professor," he says. "I remember that."

"Five points to Gryffindor for helping your housemate, Miss Weasley. Now, yes, Mister Longbottom is free to go to Hogsmeade next weekend. Will you please excuse us?"

"Yes, ma'am," Ginny answers. She puts the two essays and book on a nearby desk and leaves.

"You're right, I did say that," Professor McGonagall says. "But even believing I meant for the rest of your years here, why didn't you try to talk to me? Do you think that would be a reasonable punishment?"

Rubbing his arm, Neville answers, "I accidentally let a mass murderer into the castle, Professor McGonagall. I think I'm lucky not to have been expelled."

For a long moment, she's silent. "Sometimes," she says, "I wonder what Augusta and I need to do with you."

"Sorry, ma'am."

Standing, she walks over to him. "Go back to your assignment. And be sure to thank Miss Weasley the next time you see her; it's good to know you have housemates willing to look out for you."

"Yes, ma'am," he says.

He wonders if she's disappointed in him or just irritated at his misunderstanding.

0

After Defence, Moody has him stay.

Pushing a cup over, he says, "Your parents are heroes. I have a lot of regrets in my life, but they're near the top."

"Thank you, sir," Neville says.

"Don't worry," Moody says. "You and your family are entitled to privacy. Most of the ones your age and younger, they aren't in a position to understand."

Nodding, he sips his tea. "Thank you," he repeats.

"Pomona and your grandmother both tell me you're good at Herbology. I have some books on the subject you might enjoy."

"Sir?"

Smiling grimly, Moody reaches over and clasps his shoulder. "When you were born, my gift was a Sneakoscope. I imagine my training was the only thing that saved me from feeling the full sting of Augusta's wrath. Still, I don't think she'd object to some books on your favourite subject."

"Thank you, Professor." 

0

Looking down at his lunch, Neville reflects it’s not a year at Hogwarts without Harry, Ron, and Hermione fighting, although, Ron and Harry fighting one another is new. Usually, it’s one or both of them against Hermione.

"Neville, tell Ginny to tell Harry that-"

"Oi," Ginny says. From the way Ron winces, Neville imagines he was just kicked. "Don't drag me or Neville or anyone else into your fight. If you want to be a git and not believe your best mate, that's your call, but we're not going to humour you."

Harry gives Ginny a grateful look, and Ron scowls down at his plate.

Sitting down, Hermione says, "Hello.”

"Hermione, tell…"

0

When Gran comes to pick him up for robe shopping, she looks at the signed picture of Rita Skeeter in distaste.

"That's Seamus's, Gran," he says. "He fancies her."

Her glare doesn't lessen. "Nothing but a public liar."

She takes his hand.

"Gran," he protests.

"Hush," she orders.

"Uncle Algie said he was going to give me his robes."

"Your great-uncle has abhorrent taste," she answers. They get to the office. "Hello, Minerva. He should be back for lunch."

Nodding, Professor McGonagall hands her the floo powder and says, "You should be proud. Your grandson is the only boy brave enough to practise dancing. I've had to threaten detention with the others."

"They wouldn't even practise with the other boys?"

"Well, eventually, Dean Thomas convinced Seamus Finnigan, but I believe that was due to him sensing I was about to threaten detention," McGonagall comments.

 0

At the shop, Gran asks, "Is there anyone you want to go to the dance with?"

"No, ma'am. Everyone- it's like you have to, y'know, fancy someone to go with someone," he confesses. "And it seems like it has to be a girl and boy."

"If you like a boy-"

"Not me, Gran. It just seems like it'd make more sense for Dean and Seamus and Ron and Harry to go together since they're best mates and all. But Dean's going with a Hufflepuff girl, and Seamus is going with Lavender Brown, even though I thought she and Parvarti would go together. And Ron and Harry keep talking about finding a girl to take."

Gran looks thoughtful. "Most people consider balls an event to take a date to, but there's no rule saying two friends can't go together. I'm sure you can find someone to go just as your friend."

He doubts it. If Ginny can, she'll go with Harry, and he thinks Hermione wants Ron to ask her.

She picks up a robe. “What do you think of this one?”

Automatically, he starts to check out the pockets but remembers he doesn’t need to do so.

“It’s fine.”

0

When he gets back, Ginny sits down and looks over his notes. “Did you find some nice robes?”

“Yeah,” he answers. “Found a date, yet?”

Sighing, she shakes her head. “It’s not worth it, anymore. Half the boys can only see the fact Ron is Harry’s best mate, and everyone else- Well, people haven’t forgot my first year,” she says.

“Fancy going as friends?”

The words are out before he can think, but she simply smiles. “That’d be lovely. Thank you, Neville. Now, why do you have ‘take Gran to Gringotts’?”

“Snape’s class,” he explains. “I thought being locked in a vault-” He gives a shrug.

She giggles.

0

In the library, Moody suddenly appears and orders, “Help Potter put his books back,” before wandering away and taking a swing from his flask.

“Yes, sir,” Neville says.

He notices Harry has a book on plants in front of him.

“You know,” he tentatively offers, “if you’re interested in plants, you’d be better off with Goshwak’s Guide to Herbology. Do you know, t-there’s a wizard, i-in Nepal, who’s growing gravity-resistant trees?”

“Neville,” Harry almost snaps, and he winces. “No offence, but I really don’t care about plants. Now, if there’s a Tibetan turnip that will allow me to breathe underwater for an hour, then great, but otherwise-”

“I don’t know about turnip,” he says. He wishes he had parchment and a quill so he could write down a reminder to look up magical turnips. “But you can always use gillyweed.”

“Gillyweed?”

Sitting down, Neville nods. “It’s n-native to the Mediterranean Sea. It gives people gills and webbing. There’s some debate, though, about how long it lasts in fresh water versus salt water.”

Looking somewhat interested, Harry asks, “Is there any around here?”

“I imagine Snape has some,” he answers with a shudder. “But it’s somewhat restricted due to-”

Jumping up, Harry says, “Neville- thank you. You’re brilliant. I have to go to the kitchens.”

“You’re welcome?”

Neville just hopes Hermione doesn’t have even more plans for S.P.E.W.

0

Walking straight with his fists clenched, Neville doesn’t stop to apologise when he accidentally knocks Dennis Creevey to the ground.

Bartemius Crouch was in Hogwarts all year.

He bumps into Severus Snape, finds himself grabbed, his wand taken, and locked in a classroom.

The classroom has windows and chairs, and Neville picks a chair up and throws as hard as he can.    

This is how Minerva McGonagall finds him.

She grabs him and forces the chair out of his hands. “The dementors’ kissed him.”

Neville sinks down to the floor.

Bellatrix Lestrange, her husband, and Crouch took his parents, Sirius Black took Oak, and now, Crouch has helped kill a student.

0

Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody watch Neville through a greenhouse window.

“The boy flinches every time he sees me,” Alastor notes.

“Considering the circumstances, I’d say that was reasonable,” Albus replies. “Every year, Augusta grows more fearful of sending him here.”

“This is where he and Potter need to be,” Alastor flatly declares. “Now more than ever. It’s also time he was told. Crouch knew a lot from my forcing the pensieve on me, but knowing just to interact with the boy, that had to come from Wormtail.”

“It’s for Augusta to decide,” is Albus’s firm response.

“He won’t thank any of us for it!”

“I imagine you’re right,” Albus concedes. “But she has done her best for almost fifteen years, now. Certainly, she’s made many mistakes, and this might be a worse one than we can forsee. However, she believes it best to let him continue slowly getting over the grief of losing his beloved pet, and it’s her right to make such a decision while he remains under her care.”

They watch as Neville smiles when he gets the exact amount of water he wants in a measuring cup.

0

Neville looks up from the place he planted apple seeds in first year to see Malfoy looking at him. “Spare me,” he says. “I’m pathetic and on the wrong side. I don’t care. Even if I die, I still believe Harry will win.”

“The Dark Lord has a valuable tool,” Malfoy replies with a smirk. “Your brave words aren’t worth anything, Longbottom.”

“Do you really want You-Know-Who to win?”

Malfoy looks at him as if he’s insane, but he continues, “Because in first year, you wanted to be Harry’s friend. A-Andromeda Tonks, she’s still your aunt, and her muggle-born husband is still your uncle, even if you don’t like them. Do you really want him to win?”

“I couldn’t care less about my blood traitor aunt, her mudblood husband, or Saint Harry Potter,” Malfoy coldly announces. “The Dark Lord will win. He won’t take kindly to you or any of your blood traitor family. Them and the Weasley’s will be the first to go.”

“You’re wrong.”

“We’ll see,” Malfoy says. Then, he turns and walks away.

0

At the end of the year, when the carriages pull up, Neville takes a breath and hesitantly asks, “Harry, what do you see pulling the carriage?”

Giving him a puzzled look, Harry answers, “Neville, there’s nothing pulling the carriages; they’re pulling themselves, just like always.”

Nodding, Neville briefly reaches out to pat one of the thestrals.

If Harry can’t see them, maybe- maybe that means he’ll be alright, he thinks.


	5. Chapter 5

While waiting for the Knight Bus, Neville asks, "Would you like some ice-cream, Gran?"

Sighing, she says, "Yes, that's fine, dear."

Teller Bornuk isn't at his station. After going through three different goblins and two humans, it was established he is alive.

Neville reckons, as soon as he's dropped off at Uncle Algie's, this won't stay true for long.

The bus arrives.

"Maybe he's sick," he suggests.

"That's no excuse for him not sending me an owl." To the driver, she says, "Fortescue's." 

They sit down, and Neville tries to figure out how to ask what he's wondering. "Gran- You and Teller Bornuk- W-what's the story?"

This seems to startle her.

"Neville-"

Hearing the rebuke, he winces.

She sighs and reaches over to squeeze his hand. "When your granddad caught dragon pox, I went to Gringott's one day, and well, there were a lot of things going on. I found a bench and started crying. Bornuk was very kind to me. Of course, after he cheered me up, we got into an argument about something or other. I don't even remember what.”

"W-was he a member of the Order of the Phoenix?"

"No," she answers. "He never has been. But he occasionally helped your father on cases involving counterfeiting."

"Gran," he softly asks, "do you think he could be a target?"

"I don't know," she answers. Closing her eyes, she says, "You-Know-Who usually didn't have much interest in goblins, but Bornuk is very popular. He knows more about the personal lives of his customers than most of the others do."

The bus stops.

Inside, Neville keeps his hand on his money until after Gran is done ordering, and then, quickly pulls it out and hands it to the cashier.

"Neville! Excuse me, please give my grandson his money back. I have some-"

Giggling, the cashier, a pretty witch with cornrows, shakes her head and hands him the change. "It's not easy to pay for them, is it? I've gotten to where I have cast a Confundus on my dad so that he can't find his money in time."

Shaking his head, Neville says, "I'm not allowed to have my wand until school. Got any non-magical tricks?"

Before she can answer, he finds himself dragged away.

"Neville-"

"It's my money, Gran. And I'm not little anymore."

Shaking her head, she leans over to kiss his forehead.

0

At the station, he hears, "Augusta!"

They look up to see the Weasley's, Harry, and Hermione walking over.

"Here, Neville, taste-"

Whatever the twins want him to taste is promptly snatched away by Mrs Weasley. "Where do you hide these things? Stand still! If I have to strip the two of you down, I will!"

"Mum, it was just-"

"Arthur, help me-"

Ginny grabs his and Hermione's hand and gives a soft kick to their trunks to make them float. "We need to go."

"Yes," Gran says. She kisses him. "Try to do better with your schoolwork, dear."

Ginny drags him and Hermione on the train while Ron drags Harry.

He notices Hermione's shiny badge and offers, "Congratulations on being Prefect, Hermione."

"Oi, I'm one, too," Ron declares.

"Perhaps if you wore your badge it might be more obvious," Hermione retorts.

"Oh, here's Luna," Ginny says. "We can sit with her."

"I'll-"

Ginny shoots him a glare. "I know Luna can be a bit- but she's very nice. Everywhere else is full; we're sitting with her."

Reluctantly, he follows them into the compartment.

Luna Lovegood is a bizarre-looking girl who once tried to do something to Oak. Last year, he ran into her at the World Quidditch Cup when the death eaters attacked. Neither meeting had left him with a kind impression of her, although, last year had proven she was brave.

"Everyone this is Loony-" Ginny winces. "I mean, Luna Lovegood. Luna, this is Harry Potter, my brother Ron, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom."

"Hello," Luna says. She looks up from the upside down magazine she's reading.

Neville sighs and carefully takes his Mimbulus Mimbletonia out of his trunk. This, he realises, is going to be a long ride.

0

For once, there’s no fighting between Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but it must be too much to hope no one else in Gryfindor would be fighting, either.

"Shay!"

Before Dean can reach him, though, Seamus is gone.

Ron glares, and taking a breath, Neville reaches over. "Dean believes Harry.”

"Seamus doesn't," Ron hisses.

"L-last year, y-you didn't believe Harry," he points out. "But you and Hermione were still friends."

Not answering, Ron disappears behind his curtains.

Quietly, Neville leaves the dorm.

0

Neville is starting to think Umbridge’s class is almost as bad as Snape’s.

"Oh, I don't know," Harry retorts with his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Maybe Lord Voldemort."

Hermione and Ron both give Harry supportive looks, and Dean reaches over to grab Seamus's arm, though, what he thinks his friend might do, Neville isn't sure.

Someone drops something, and it seems everyone jumps.

"Now, let me make this quite plain," Professor Umbridge says with a terrifying look on her face, "you have been told that a certain dark wizard is at large, once again. This is a lie."

No, it's not, Neville wants to say.

Even if he didn't believe Harry, he'd have to believe his great-uncle. Other countries are reporting a rash of UK muggle murders, and some witches, wizards, and others have been kidnapped.

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident!"

He wishes he were brave like Harry.

Gran went over to the Diggory's a few times during the summer and occasionally took him. Neville can't say for sure what Mrs Diggory believes, but Mr Diggory does believe Harry. He cried and talked about killing You-Know-Who for taking his son every time Neville went with her.

A girlish giggle breaks him out of his thoughts, and he finds himself shuddering.

0

In the kitchens, Neville reminds himself house-elves aren’t allowed to hurt students.

"Er, hullo.”

Hermione had sent him to the kitchens with orders to read a pamphlet to the elves she'd designed, and as kind as Hermione is, she did once put him in a body-bind.

Plus, her cat wanted to eat Oak.

He's not inclined to say no when she decides he needs to do something.

The elves are glaring at him.

"Right.” He kneels down. "If you could just take this pamphlet, I c-can go. I don't think she'd like it if I ordered you to read it, and honestly, I'm not sure I can pronounce some of the words in it."

This seems to soften them, and one of them comes over and takes it. "Would Sir like some sweets?"  

"No, thank you," he answers,

Neville stands, and the door opens.

"Hello, again," Luna Lovegood says.

"Hullo," he says. "Excuse me."

"More raw meat, Miss," one of the elves asks.

Finding himself stepping back, Neville repeats, "Raw meat?"

0

Carefully, Neville reaches down to pet the baby thestral.

It- he thinks it's a she- makes a noise and continues rubbing against his leg.

"My mum."

He looks over and wonders what exactly he's doing sitting near the forbidden forest with Loony Lovegood, of all people.

"I know you're wondering. I don't mind. She was muggle-born, and her family always tried to quash her sense of curiosity. So when she was old enough, she quickly became willing to disregard any risk if it meant possibly discovering more questions. I was nine, and there was a new spell she was trying to master."

"I'm sorry.”

"She died happy," is Luna’s soft response. "Most of the time that's a comfort to Dad and me."

"It was-"

"You shouldn't tell me if you don't want to," she interrupts. She smiles when one of them begins chewing a strand of her hair. "I believe Harry Potter, by the way."

"Thanks. I wish more people did."

"I'd say the most important people already do," she answers. "Eventually, more will follow."

"I don't imagine Harry rightly cares one way or another if I believe him," Neville muses.

The baby tries to climb up into his lap.

"Er, look, let me sit down on the ground, okay?"

Once he's sitting cross-legged on the ground, it promptly curls up on his lap and falls asleep.

"Oh, great! Now, what am I going to do?"

Luna withdraws her wand and slowly levitates the thestral up, floats it away, and carefully lowers it onto a patch of soft grass under a tree.

"Thank you," he says. 

"Many people think more highly of you than you do yourself," she comments.

Neville isn't sure how to respond.

"I- I know I-"

It's gotten easier to face Malfoy's insults, but he can't bring himself to defend himself against such a statement.

For all the times he tells Malfoy he's not worthless, not pathetic, and so on, the truth is he's not really good at anything but Herbology. For a long time, he thought he was good at taking care of Oak, but then, he had the stupid idea to send his rat home via owl while there was a mass murderer lurking the grounds.

They walk back in silence.

0

Dean isn't so much as eating his lunch as he is trying to punish his food for daring to end up on his plate.

Finishing his, Neville gets up and leaves.

Spotting Nearly Headless Nick sitting with The Grey Lady on a bench, he walks over. "Excuse me, Sir Nick."

The ghost looks up with a smile. "Oh, hello, Neville."

"Neville Longbottom?"

He jumps at the icy tone and at the fact The Grey Lady just spoke.

As far as he can remember, he's never heard her do so.

"Now, now, Helena, he's a very kind boy," Nick says. He reaches over to pat her hand. "Yes, my boy? How may I be of service?"

"I was wondering: Have you seen Seamus around here? He hasn't shown up for lunch, and Dean- isn't taking it so well."

"He went into the old music classroom," Nick answers. Pointing, he says, "Here, just go up those stairs, don't worry if they move, and when you get to the top, go to the left. It has a bright yellow door. But be careful. The door has a tendency to play rather loud, very annoying music if it isn't opened correctly."

"Thank you, Sir Nick."

Nick bows. "Happy to be of service, my dear boy."

Neville heads off and hears The Grey Lady comment, "I do not approve."

When he gets to the yellow-door room, he feels his chest tighten.

Seamus is sobbing, and Dean is lying dead on the floor.

Trying not to let panic overtake him and thinking of Dean in the Great Hall, Neville digs for his wand. "Riddikulus!"

Back to his full colour and considerably younger, Dean jumps up and yells, "Send him off, Ref, Red Card!"

This causes a teary, hiccuppy laugh, and Neville manages to send the boggart back into the open desk drawer and slam it shut.

Seamus stands up and mutters a locking spell on it before shakily sinking back onto the ground.

Sitting down, Neville digs out a package of liquorice wands. "Here.”

"Thanks," Seamus mutters.

"Dean's not happy you're not at lunch."

"I don't care," Seamus snaps. He curls his arms around his legs. "Harry's lying!"

Taking a deep breath, Neville asks, "Can't you two just not talk about it?"

"You don't understand."

"True," Neville agrees.

For a long moment, there's an uncomfortable silence.

"That's the problem. He believes there's a horrible wizard, one who'd kill him, his family, my dad, and maybe me and Mam in a second, no hesitation, but since I don't, he thinks we can just talk about the stuff we always talk about. How could you understand?"

"You think I don't understand that? Seamus, I'm surprised my gran's picture isn't under 'Blood traitor' in the dictionary. Hermione's one of the most talented witches in Hogwarts, and I still get scared whenever she and Malfoy are in the same room. At Gringott's, there's this goblin who occasionally comes over for tea, and I'd be sad if something happened to him, but Gran- she'd be devastated. I also understand that You-Know-Who isn't the only dark wizard around."

"Why are you here," Seamus inquires.

Neville shrugs. "Because I do believe Harry," he answers. "And whatever your reasons, I reckon this is what You-Know-Who wants. Purebloods and half-bloods to abandon their muggle-born mates."

"Never accuse me of that," Seamus quietly orders.

Standing up, Neville offers his hand.

Seamus takes it.

When they get back to the Great Hall, Seamus walks over to Dean. "Hey," he says. "Mind if I sit with ya?"

Giving him a disgruntled look and still violently attacking his food, Dean makes room. Then, he pauses. "Shay, why are your eyes red?"

Neville goes to find his own seat.

0

He’s waiting outside with Ginny and Luna when Ginny exclaims, "Luna, I swear, you're worse than Hagrid. Put the fire crab down!"

Neville watches in fascination as Luna carefully puts down the small fire crab she was letting crawl on the back of her hands.

Scowling, Ginny digs out a handkerchief and wipes Luna’s hands. "New rule. You're going to hold someone's hand when we go into Hogsmeade. The last thing we need is you getting detention, again."

"The centaurs didn't mind," Luna responds. "They were very kind."

Taking Luna's hand, Ginny sighs.  

"It was nice of Hermione Granger to invite me."

"I just hope enough people go for her idea," Ginny says. "Something has to be done about Umbridge."

Dean appears with Colin and Dennis Creevey.

"Hey, guys. I told Seamus I'd meet him in an hour. Careful, Dennis, you'll burn another hole in your tongue," he says.

Neville sees the younger Creevey is happily licking an acid pop.

"Is that a fire crab?"

They stop and wait as Luna picks the fire crab back up so Colin can take pictures.

0

During Christmas break, he and Gran go to Gringotts and have hot chocolate in the lobby.

"Would you like to come over for dinner?"

"If you wish to poison me, it'd be more effective to send the food anonymously," Teller Bornuk answers.

Remembering Luna's insistence on Cornelius Fudge being guilty of poisoning goblins, Neville covers his mouth.

"Poison is a common, cowardly way to go about things," Gran retorts.

"I'll see what my schedule is," Teller Bornuk answers.

Nodding, she says, "I'm going to go to the loo. Neville-"

"I don't need to go, Gran."

"Stay in the lobby."

"Yes, ma'am."

Teller Bornuk takes his cup and refills it. "How's school, lad? I've heard some interesting things about your new headmistress."

Unable to help himself, Neville scowls. "If she could get away with it, she'd call the muggle-borns _that_ name. She and Malfoy get along real well."

Making a sympathetic sound, Teller Bornuk offers him a biscuit.

"Thank you," Neville says. He takes his gloves off to take it. 

Before he can, his right wrist is grabbed.

"You've been using a blood quill," Teller Bornuk notes with a strong undercurrent under his calm tone. "I must obey the rules."

Jerking his hand back and letting the biscuit fall to the floor, Neville quickly pleads, "Don't tell Gran. Please."

"You haven't done anything-"

"I know that," Neville says with a fearful look towards the toilets. "Look, please- I don't want to leave Hogwarts. It's not like she's crucioing us."

"Forcing a person to use a blood quill falls under the legal definition of torture."

"You and Gran always argue about getting involved in things. T-t-this is-isn't your business, sir."

Shaking his head, Teller Bornuk asks, "Do you really expect that to work? Your grandmother is my friend, and she would give her life for you."

"Yeah, she would," Neville agrees. "At Hogwarts, there's a secret club; we're learning real Defence. I'm safe there. If I have to come home, what if someone attacks? If I'm not there to protect, she has a better chance of getting to safety."

Glancing over towards the loo, Teller Bornuk reaches over and quickly puts Neville's glove back on. "We will talk about this tonight," he whispers.

Gran sits down, and he asks, "What should I bring?”

0

After Gran's gone to bed, Neville pours out his coins.

Teller Bornuk spots the DA coin before he can start looking. "This isn't a real galleon."

"How do you know?”

"I'm a banker," Teller Bornuk reminds him. "Despite what your grandmother might occasionally say, I'm good at my job." Turning the coin over, he notes, "You put this smudge of white dirt on it intentionally, so that you wouldn't accidentally spend it."

"Actually, that was someone else's idea," Neville says. "But yes, sir. That's why they did it.

"Tell me about this secret club."

Taking a breath and hoping this doesn't turn out to be a big mistake, Neville does.

0

When Augusta sits down the next morning, Bornuk says, "You asked me to tell you if your grandson ever confided in me about anything important. The day's come."

Sighing, she closes her eyes. "Is it about Wormtail?"

"No."

"A girl or boy," she hopefully inquires.

"I think he might be developing feelings for a classmate of his, but no."

She looks down at her plate. "Do you think it's something I need to know?"

Carefully, he answers, "It's something you think you would. If you ask, I'll tell you."

"If you hadn't made that agreement, would you?"

"Yes."

Augusta takes a deep breath. She still doesn't know how many secrets her son kept from her, but she knows he always had someone to confide in. She'd trust Bornuk more than she would any of Neville's classmates or, aside from Minerva, professors.

"I'm not going to ask," she says and deliberately doesn’t look over to see Bornuk's expression.

0

At St. Mungo’s, Neville takes a deep breath before walking in.

His dad is busy reorganising a box of blocks, and his mum is sitting on one of the beds and making her pillow float; apparently, sometimes, they seem to know they can do such things and practise wandless magic.

Gran goes over to kiss Dad, and Mum looks up. Seeing him, she smiles and comes over.

He reflects she looks much like Oak did when someone had sweets.

Digging the package of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum out, he says, "Here, Mum."

She wanders off, and he sits down.

He stays there while his Gran talks to the healer.

Two years ago, he brought his mum her old Herbology textbook and showed it to her. She'd been more interested in examining his teeth and ears.

When they get ready to leave, he notices his mum is occupied and decides to leave her be.

As he walks out, he hears Ron Weasley's voice calling his name, and everything freezes when he looks up to see Ron, Harry, and Hermione heading over.

0

A green apple is deposited in his lap.

"Thanks," Neville says. He reaches down to pet the baby. "You're getting good at nicking them."

A proud huff is its response.

"You're avoiding people."

"Hullo, Luna," he says with a wave. "Yeah, I reckon I am."

The Lestranges have escaped. Professor McGonagall seems convinced he's going to himself kidnapped, and Harry keeps giving him sweets while Hermione tells him he can always talk to her and Ron tries to avoid him while trying to pretend he's not.

"Would you like me to leave?"

Shaking his head, he answers, "No. It's mainly just Harry and them I'm trying to avoid."

She sits down. "I imagine pity from friends would be worse than pity from others.”

"Luna- Your dad- You're proud of him, aren't you?"

"Yes," she answers. "I know what people say about him and The Quibbler. I have a good idea what they'd say about my mum if they knew about her. Still, I'm very proud of both of them."

Carefully, he digs his picture of the Order of the Phoenix out, hands it to her, and points his parents out.

"Fourteen years ago," he says with his voice remarkably steady, "a death eater named Bellatrix Lestrange used the Cruciatus curse on my parents. She tortured them for information, but they never gave in." Looking over, he says, "I'm quite proud to be their son. But- I'm not sure I'm ready for everyone to know just yet."

She nods and reaches over to trace the words on his right hand with her left hand. "I understand. Even though I know Ginny Weasley and the others would be kind about it, I haven't told them about my mum, yet. We are who we are, aren't we? Nevertheless, sometimes, even the most well-meaning of people will attribute the things they don't like about us to our parents. That isn't fair to mine or yours." 

"Thank you, Luna," he says. "I'm sorry for-"

"It's okay," she tells him. "I didn't realise you and I shared much until recently."

0

They’re going to break into the ministry.

Or, they might. He’ll freak out about this if it ever gets to a point everyone isn’t arguing with everyone else.

"Hermione, ride with Harry," Ron insists. "Ginny, ride with Loon- Luna. I'll ride with Neville," he says with a sigh.

"Neville, your trousers are moving!"

"No, Hermione, put the wand down," Neville quickly says while reaching over to lower her hand. To the baby, he says, "Look, you can't-"

It gives a violent tug.

"Okay," he says, "you want to help?"

It nudges his leg.

"I need you to go keep an eye on Malfoy. Er, don't let Nott see you, and y'know, if he has any nearby green apples, you know what to do."

Giving a determined shake, the baby trots off.

"We have to go," he hurriedly says. 

"Neville," Harry asks, "did you just-"

"It's for her or his own good," Neville answers. He gets on and helps Ron. "Now, about Sirius Black, the man who once attacked me with a knife, being innocent?"

0

"How do we put these on?"

Everyone looks at Luna.

Neville gives them all a sympathetic look before walking over and helping her put the 'Rescue Mission' nametag on.

There are grumbles, but everyone puts theirs on, too.

0

"Neville, why do you have wings? We just recently became friends," Luna says while Neville tries to get the brain wrapped around her leg off. "Will you see my mummy, first? I-"

"Luna, I'm not dead. There's a brain attached to your leg," he says. "Please, focus. How do I get it off?"

"The soul rests in the brain. Dementors-"

"Anything besides that!"

"Someone's coming," she declares.

He turns with his wand aimed and positions himself fully in front of where she's sitting.

Peter Pettigrew appears.

He’s a death eater, just like Harry said.

Neville's forefront thought is, Draco Malfoy was right; why is he always right about this sort of thing?

Before he can cast a spell, Pettigrew is gone.

Blinking, Neville sees a rat on the floor.

"Oak!"

He starts to take a step, and then, everything clicks. For a long moment, both he and the rat are still, and then, slowly, he raises his wand.

Pettigrew scurries away before he can do anything.

Turning around, Neville quickly grabs Luna. "Luna, we need to try to walk, okay?"

"You're all black and purple inside."

"Can't imagine why," he grits out. 

"Neville, Luna!"

He looks over to see the others running towards them.

"Harry," he says, "I know this isn't the best time, but I just found out that Peter Pettigrew was really Oak. Wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Neville-"

Of course, he did. It's written all over Harry's face and clear in his voice. Everyone with the possible exceptions of Ginny and Luna knew.

Reaching over, Neville yanks Harry down and yells, "Stupefy," at one of the death eaters about to attack.

0

"Don't talk to me!"

McGonagall sighs. "Mister Longbottom, I realise you're upset, but that doesn't give you the right to be disrespectful!"

Wanting to hit something, Neville stands up, looks at her, and ignores the tears in his eyes. "You're right, Professor. You have every right to lie to me for three years, but it's too much for me to want a little privacy. I'm sorry, Professor. Feel free to give me detention or write my grandmother," he snaps with his left hand involuntarily going to his right one. "From now on, I'll be very respectful. And then, the second I turn seventeen, I will never speak to you or my grandmother again."

He pushes past her.

"Neville Longbottom, listen to me!"

Turning, he stops.

"We did what-"

"Are you really going to use that excuse," he demands. "For- I don't know how many years, but for years, I carried a murderer around in my pocket. He slept on my chest at night, and I gave him my sweets. I told him things I never told anyone. I took him to see my parents! For three years, I couldn't help but blame myself for his death. What right did you and the others have to keep this from me?"

He notices she's crying, but he can't bring himself to find any sympathy. "Tell me when you want my detention to be, Professor McGonagall," he says before walking away.

0

Luna and the baby find him in the Room of Requirement.

It's just a small, blank white room with lights. He only came to avoid everyone.

"Did you know," he asks.

"Not exactly," she answers. Sitting down across from him, she says, "At the Quidditch World Cup, I recognised his eyes. My instincts kept telling me one thing, but rationally, I kept telling myself it couldn't be true. I've seen many of the creatures featured in The Quibbler, you know. But that a person could do such a thing- that they would, I told myself I was wrong. I thought of talking to the others, but."

He sighs and puts his hand over his eyes.

"Luna, could you please leave me alone and take the baby with you?"

She complies.

0

He’s tending to a sick cactus and trying to give Seamus instructions on a plant Seamus has at home.

"But why can't I just water it seven times during one day?"

"Seamus, that’ll kill it.”

“Merlin’s beard,” Seamus grumbles. “Canna I just owl it to you? I didn’t even want the stupid plant. It’s Fergus’s idea of a brilliant joke. Soon as I pass me apparition test, I’ll show him!”

“Well,” Neville says, “you can have your mum or dad owl Gran. If she’s okay with it, I wouldn’t mind taking it. At least, it won’t be blown up.”

“Says the one who forgot where Charms was while he was standing right in front of it!”

It wasn’t Neville’s fault the door suddenly decided to pretend to be a window with Latin writing above it.

“Hiya, Harry,” Seamus says, and Neville feels himself tense.

Seamus jumps up, and in his peripheral vision, Neville sees the two clasp shoulders. “Hey, Seamus.”

“Doing alright?”

“Yeah, thanks, Seamus.”

After Seamus leaves, Harry says, “Neville.”

“Do you trust me, Harry?”

“What sort question is that,” Harry asks.

“One you haven’t answered,” Neville says. He stands up and turns around. “Malfoy always compared me to Pettigrew."

“You’re nothing like Pettigrew!”

Shaking his head, Neville says, “The thing is, though, I am. He wasn’t wrong. But the way I’m different from is that I would never hurt anyone like he did.”

“I know that. Neville, look, I’m sorry about not telling you.”

“I don’t like what you and the others did, but I’m not going to keep being angry over it.” Looking straight in his eyes, Neville says, “My gran is the most important person in my life, Harry. I’d trust you with her life. I’m going to try my best to help defeat Voldemort. If you want me to help _you_ , all you have to do is say the word. But don’t say it unless you can honestly trust me with your life, with the lives of everyone you care about. It’d just be a waste of both our times.”

He pushes past Harry.

0

Bornuk closes the door to his cave without bothering to lock it.

He activates the magical chandelier and walks over to his lockbox. Opening it, he withdraws a picture and sighs. Setting it down, he closes and relocks the lockbox.

Behind him, the door opens.

Turning, he sees Peter Pettigrew standing in the doorway with his wand pointed.

Bowing, Bornuk comments, “I preferred you more in your other form.”

“Quiet, goblin.”

Walking over, Bornuk holds out his hand. When Pettigrew looks at him suspiciously, he says, “We mustn’t keep your lord waiting.”

“You have no idea what you’re getting into, do you?”

“I’ve visited Augusta’s children, and I’ve helped bury the dead struck by your lord’s wand,” Bornuk answers. “I know.”

“Then, why aren’t you fighting? You had time to escape before now.”

“I crossed lines I ought to have never even come near,” Bornuk answers. “Obviously, you and I disagree, but the best thing to do is pay for your sins when the time comes. Attempting to avoid so will only make things worse.”

“The boy and-”

“His name is Neville Argyle Longbottom,” Bornuk interrupts. “And I’ll come with you, but your lord won’t get anything out of me. More than I fear him, I fear Augusta.”

Pettigrew takes the his offered hand, and they disappear.

Above the cave, a dark mark rests.

0

Neville sits in his room and feels a cold chill going through him.

His Snapping Ivy reaches over, and he takes one of its vines in his hand and places the other hand on the window.

Outside, under an invisibility cloak, Bellatrix Lestrange’s eyes bore into his as she places her hand over his on the window. “Sleep tight, little baby,” she singsongs. “It won’t be look before I come for you.”

Her laughter rings out into the night.


End file.
